The Trump administration’s on-line accounts are circulating photographs of a pumpkin carved with a sombrero design and a faux Halloween-themed background round a Black man apparently accused of meals help fraud, in social media posts slammed by critics as inflammatory rhetoric.
Solely days earlier than the midterm elections, the posts coincide with the federal government’s sweeping marketing campaign to indicate its aggressive immigration enforcement, and spotlight efforts to crack down on fraud to avoid wasting taxpayers cash when rising healthcare prices and different financial stressors have made affordability a high voter concern.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins posted Saturday on the social platform X a photograph of the Black man standing in entrance of stacks of what look like U.S. foreign money with the headline, SNAP FRAUDSTER, an obvious reference to the Supplemental Diet Help Program, previously generally known as meals stamps.
He’s holding aloft what seems to be a invoice set aflame.
“Some costumes include a price ticket. This one comes with a jail sentence,” it says to the backdrop of faux Spirit Halloween costume packaging.
One other picture posted by the White Home on X on Thursday confirmed a pumpkin with the form of a sombrero carved throughout it and the phrases “Spooky szn is right here.”
The submit by Rollins, who was nominated by Trump to function the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture in November 2024, seems to be taken from an Instagram submit from September 2025 by an account underneath the identify Shawty Dred.
Earlier this month, Mercedes Reshard New, recognized by the Justice Division as a social media persona also called “Shawty Dred,” was arrested on federal prices for fraudulently acquiring greater than $4 million in Supplemental Diet Help Program advantages in Georgia.
It’s not the primary time the White Home has been accused of posting inflammatory photographs on official authorities social media accounts.
Simply over a yr in the past throughout the federal government shutdown, the White Home revived a deepfake video posted by Trump of Home Democratic chief Hakeem Jeffries in a faux mustache and sombrero to accuse the Democrats of performing on behalf of unlawful immigrants as a substitute of U.S. residents. Jeffries described the meme as bigoted. They performed it on repeat within the White Home briefing room, although Vice President JD Vance promised that the “sombrero memes will cease” when Democrats agreed to finish the shutdown.
The NAACP didn’t reply to an electronic mail looking for remark, nor did the White Home or Rollins.
The Trump administration in latest weeks has ratcheted up its anti-immigrant rhetoric and accusations of fraud, together with in opposition to U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar whose Washington, D.C., dwelling was searched by federal brokers earlier this month. Federal authorities are investigating potential fraud in her household’s immigration paperwork. Omar, who was born in Somalia, is a naturalized U.S. citizen.
It additionally has taken a sequence of punitive steps linked to allegations of fraud in largely Democratic-led states, together with California and Minnesota whose governors accused the federal authorities of concentrating on their states for political causes.
Federal prosecutors mentioned in a information launch Oct. 21 that the influencer, New, managed greater than 350 fraudulent SNAP accounts underneath stolen identities between January 2020 and July 2026. He allegedly utilized for his firm, Shawty Dred LLC, to develop into a certified SNAP retailer and used EBT debit playing cards to extract about $4 million from the accounts.
New’s Instagram account, which has greater than two million followers, has flaunted his extravagant life-style, federal prosecutors mentioned. Posts depict him flying on non-public jets, posing with Rolls-Royce automobiles in entrance of his “tremendous mansion,” and dealing with huge stacks of money.
“As an alternative of this cash feeding households in want, New, the social media persona generally known as ‘Shawty Dred,’ allegedly used the money to bankroll a lifetime of luxurious,” Particular Agent in Cost of FBI Atlanta Marlo Graham mentioned within the launch.
New was indicted by a federal grand jury Oct. 7 on dozens of counts of mail fraud and aggravated identification theft, and one depend every of SNAP fraud and unlawful transactions with entry gadgets. He was arrested Oct. 13 and stays in federal custody.
Based on Fulton County jail information, New has been arrested a number of occasions on suspicion of crimes together with identification theft, insurance coverage fraud, monetary transaction card fraud, forgery and easy assault.
A federal defender listed in court docket information as representing New, Joseph Austin, didn’t return a cellphone message.
