The U.S.A.’s New Passport, which says, “Welcome, but be good!” President DJT
Understanding Passports
- A U.S. passport is an official government document that verifies your American citizenship and requests safe passage for you in foreign countries.
- It allows you to travel internationally, access U.S. consular assistance abroad, and legally re-enter the United States
- A U.S. passport does not welcome foreigners to the U.S.
The Passport Is Not a Campaign Brochure
Why Is a Menacing Trump Glowering From Inside an American Passport?
And why is “welcome, but be good” the written message?
Michael Seller’s Substack: The Passport Is Not a Campaign Brochure
A U.S. passport is one of the most basic documents of citizenship. It is not partisan. It is not personal. It is not supposed to belong to the president who happens to be in office when it is issued. It belongs to the citizen.That is what makes this so jarring. A passport is not like a campaign hat, a rally banner, or a commemorative coin sold on late-night television. It is an official document of the United States government. It tells foreign governments that the bearer is an American citizen and is entitled to the protection of the United States.
The design of a passport therefore matters. Not because most people spend hours studying the interior art, but because the document carries the authority of the American state. It represents the country. It represents continuity. It represents the idea that the United States is larger than any one leader.
Putting Trump inside that document reverses the logic.Instead of the passport saying, “This citizen belongs to the United States,” the visual message becomes something closer to: “This United States belongs to Trump.”
The Glower Is the Point
The new image is not warm. It is not dignified. It is not reflective. It is not presidential in the old civic sense of that word.
It is a dominance image.
Trump is leaning forward, eyes fixed, shoulders squared, hands planted. The Declaration of Independence appears behind him, but it does not command the scene. He does. The emotional message is not liberty. It is not citizenship. It is not national unity. It is control.
And that is what makes the image so revealing.
Someone — Trump, the White House, the State Department, or whoever is guiding the visual language of this administration — apparently looked at a passport commemorating the Declaration of Independence and decided the image should not communicate confidence, freedom, welcome, or shared national inheritance.
It should communicate menace.
That choice matters because official imagery is never neutral. Governments use symbols to tell people what kind of country they are living in. In a democratic republic, the symbolism usually points outward: to the people, the land, the founding documents, the institutions, the history. In authoritarian politics, the symbolism points inward: to the leader.
That is what this passport image does. It turns the anniversary of the nation into another occasion for the projection of Trump’s personal power.
The Founders are on the facing page. Trump is on the other. But visually, the Founders are history. Trump is authority.
“Welcome, but be good” is not the language of citizenship.
It is the language of a landlord. Or a bouncer. Or a king.
It implies that entry into America — or perhaps membership in America — is something granted by the ruler and subject to revocation if the subject misbehaves.
The Passport as Warning Label
This is why the image feels so wrong.
It is not merely vanity, although it is certainly that. It is not merely tacky, although it is certainly that too. It is that the image transforms the emotional meaning of the passport.
A passport should say: you are a citizen of a republic.
It should also say something to the rest of the world: this person travels under the protection of the United States. Treat the bearer of this passport with the dignity and respect owed to an American citizen.
That is the outward-facing logic of a passport. It is not a warning from the president to the citizen. It is a document by which the United States vouches for the citizen abroad.
Which makes Trump’s message — “Welcome, but be good” — so strange.
That makes no sense inside an American passport. The passport holder is not being welcomed into America. The passport holder is American. The document is not a favor granted by Trump. It is evidence of citizenship.
To use that document as wallpaper behind Donald Trump’s scowling face is already bad enough.
To pair it with “Welcome, but be good” is worse. It takes a document of citizenship and makes it feel like a warning label.
The Deeper Pattern
This would be easier to dismiss if it were isolated. It is not.
Again and again, the Trump administration has taken public symbols and pulled them toward Trump himself. The 250th anniversary, which should have been a broad civic commemoration, has increasingly become another stage for Trump’s self-mythology. The line between country and leader keeps getting blurred.
That is the pattern.
The state becomes a branding platform. The anniversary becomes a campaign backdrop. The passport becomes a Trump object. The Declaration becomes scenery. The Founders become supporting cast.
And Trump becomes the face inside the document that belongs to every citizen.
The Question We Should Be Asking
So yes, the obvious reaction is ridicule. It is absurd. It is creepy. It is embarrassing. It looks like something a minor autocrat would commission and then insist was patriotic.
But ridicule is not enough.
The better question is: what kind of mind looks at the Declaration of Independence and sees an opportunity to put Donald Trump in front of it?
What kind of administration looks at a passport and sees not a citizen’s document, but another surface on which to print the leader?
And what kind of political movement looks at America’s 250th birthday and thinks the correct emotional register is not gratitude, humility, or reflection — but a warning?
“Welcome, but be good.”
That is the line Trump chose.
It is a small phrase. But it captures a large problem.
Trump does not seem to understand the passport as a document of citizenship. He understands it as an emblem of control. And he does not seem to understand the 250th anniversary as a celebration of a republic. He understands it as another opportunity to place himself at the center of the American story.
This is just a quick post on the stupidity of it all.
That was my initial thought. And I nearly did not do the post at all. I did a quick hit about the stupidity and was going to move on.
Seconds after posting, I found Seller’s email which I excerpted above. This goes beyond stupid to something more menacing.
Sellers concluded.
MS Note: As I wrote this, I was gradually bothered by that familiar sense of —oh, why bother? There is so much of this sort of nonsense to react to. And when I react to this, I’m not reacting to something else that may be more important. But still….symbols are important. Trying to understand what is happening around us is important even when it means treating intellectualy unserious actions as serious choices because the impact is serious. Who knows. Each day we get closer to the 250th Anniversary of the Declaration of Independence—and each day America gets farther and farther away from the founding principals embodied in that declaration.
Sellers is continually a great read. I just subscribed
From Copilot:
True: Trump’s photo appears on the America250 commemorative passport design he posted. (Further up in discussion this passport rendition was defined as a commemorative passport.)
Context: The commemorative version is part of a branding rollout, not a replacement for the official passport.
Yes — Trump’s photo does appear on the commemorative America250 passport design he posted. But it’s important to note: this is not the standard U.S. passport issued to all Americans. It’s a special-edition design created for the America250 celebration and promoted by Trump.
My conclusion is Trump has created a souvenir that probably has no value as an actual passport. It’s still childish behavior as I post earlier.
“Does President Trump Have Any Idea What Passports Are For?”https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betteridge%27s_law_of_headlines
It is almost like Trump thinks a passport is an entry Visa for visitors. A glowering Trump telling visitors to be good. Not sure how it is to be interpreted by its own citizens.
However, if I received this as a visitor to the US I would cancel my travel plans. The US contains a lot of geographical beauty. the ugliness is hidden but well publicized.
She ain’t pretty she just looks that way,
Under Trump, we now have a Chief Brand Design Architect, Peter Arnell. You can visit the website and read the hype and hokum. This group is getting paid to do the sort of branding by design found on the Trump Passport. It also does website design for dreck like the American State Fair and for all I know, it is responsible for the bullyragging braggadoccio that now typifies the White House website and the websites of many federal agencies.
Trump has travelled many times before, so it’s fair to assume he knows what passports are for, which means all of this is on purpose, and the message is for its holder.
As it happens I got a new passport and card a few days ago. They have no picture of Trump nor any of the rest of these things.
Enjoy: Never gonna give you up, never gonna let you down …
Wondering if he has early stage Bidenitis
Does the passport still do what it did before?
It does? Oh. In that case, stop being a pussy. Stop complaining about everything.
The USA is still the greatest and most important nation that has ever existed.
People have died trying to get there. A land of indescribable beauty and abundance, when viewed through the lens of history
And this is what you complain about. You should be ashamed
Define greatest and most important, and tell us how the USA meets those criteria.
Oh God.
Relax. People here are just killing time until the stock market crash … and bailout.
and the oil cliff
This shit and the fact that there are plenty of dumbass Americans like yourself is the reason why I packed up and left.
You can take the “greatest and most important nation that has ever existed” and shove it very deep down your butthole.
I’ve just checked your retard status with AI…..and it is burning bright. I’d give up posting if I were you. It is simply showing off how stupid you are.
Ha, Ha!
You wish !!!
Thats what the Romans also said.
If it contains that nonsense, its not a passport. Its a joke. American USED TO BE a nation others lookup up to – maybe a few decades earlier. Today, its the laughing stock of the rest of the world.
Which you would recognise of you removed your head from where the sun doesn’t shine !!!
If you’re looking for something to complain about, I suppose you might think this is important. In Ayn Rand’s novel, “Atlas Shrugged,” she has a degenerate journalist comment about her character Henry Reardon’s habit of renaming any business he bought after himself: something along the lines of “From this, you can form your own judgement of the character of Henry Reardon.” It simply doesn’t matter in the long run. I believe ancient kings used to redecorate imposing buildings (in stone) to claim ownership of them after their predecessors had died.
Trump’s endearing weaknesses don’t matter. His competence and the fact that he is actually seeking to do some good rather than just be a placeholder do matter. How long is it since you have had a president who actually did anything? Bill Clinton maybe?
What did he do that would be considered good?
It doesn’t get a lot of publicity, but I get the impression that he has got some of the bureaucrats off the backs of your businesses. That is more important than you might think.
If you’re not too purist about non-interference, what he just did in Venezuela, by seizing their stupid dictator, might be considered pretty good, too. No doubt it will have saved lives since the earthquake. They mightn’t have things like cannibalism in their jails any more, either.
Just noting here again that Arthur called a bunch of kidnapped children “little hookers” last week. I think I’m going to keep doing this so we all remember who we’re talking to.
I called those little tarts around Epstein “little hookers.” I do understand that they probably needed the money.
George W. Bush did tax cuts, then borrowed on our credit card to do an unfortunate open-ended “global war on terror” that, especially along with the deregulatory crash he escorted the globe into, impoverished the USA and damaged its brand, at historical levels. Trump (despite getting power by criticizing Bush’s wars) is now doubling down on his versions of the foregoing (and weakening the financial system again, allowing gimmicks his family is actually cashing in on).
OK, Trump alerted us to China, and at least stemmed the chaos at the southern border (for which Biden has no excuse). But other than that, I will not just judge him on his supposed good intentions. We aren’t halfway into his tenure, and he is striving to outdo his previous “miracles,” and may yet exceed Bush’s worst. So much for “doing something.”
Oh yes Ayn Rand, the woman who made her husband pay to have sex with her. A wise woman and a very good author. I’m sure you can easily tell me who John Galt is, since you read her books… Right?
Oh wait you’re the one who called the kids on Epstein Island, and I quote: “little hookers” and said we were jealous that we couldn’t molest them. It makes perfect sense you like Rand!
I haven’t heard the one about making her husband pay. I have heard the one about Nathaniel Brandon. And yes, I can tell you “who John Galt is,” since I read and re-read the book with a good deal of enthusiasm, and also read “We the Living” (which as I recall it depicts life under Communism in Russia) and “The Fountainhead.” I also subscribed to her Ayn Rand letter while she was alive. From reading her material and seeking out other people of the same line of thought, I discovered F. A. Hayek and Ludwig von Mises. So I can thank her for a good deal of my intellectual development.
How I came to find out about her is another story. But I would never have learned of F. A. Hayek or von Mises, or some of your American greats, in Economics class in high school or university. That whole body of valid economics was effectively censored, at least here in Australia.
I note that there seems to be a push nowadays to write Nietzsche out of philosophy in the same way. He isn’t criticized: he is just not mentioned. That is like teaching biology and not mentioning Darwin or Mendel.
I think this supports my argument that modern education is a religion.
As for the little hookers, I see I am going to be tagged with that one. I have replied very recently to the same comment in another post. I won’t bother doing it again.
Getting back to Ayn Rand, I know she did dedicate one of her books to her husband, so I think there was some genuine feeling there, even though she was unfaithful.
Perfidious even.
Good?
QED….anyone who quotes Ayn Rand to you is a certified moron.
Ah….Alan Greenspan was a certified moron? I haven’t read his book properly but I have glanced at it, and I know he gives her some credit. Perhaps we are just over your head intellectually.
Anytime someone starts by quoting “Atlas Shrugged”, you can be sure the point made will be absolutely asinine and vapid
He’s done nothing to benefit the country. Nothing.
He sucks trillions from the population in tariffs.
He grifts trillions for himself and his oligarchy.
He relishes in destroying lives and families.
He thinks suffering is a punch line.
America is being isolated from the rest of the world.
He spends his time cosplaying real estate developer with no taste while gluing gold foil to the walls of the oval office.
He’s a rapist.
He is a sadist.
About the only thing he’s done is make the predators emboldened.
No, he doesn’t.
Not any more than any other subject that he attempts to address that shows his total ignorance. How he was elected president not once, but twice, especially after supporting an insurection effort is beyond even an average person’s intellingence.
The ground was prepared with Rush Limbaugh and FOX News, which in a very clever, calculated way, gave permission to a bunch of disgruntled guys to wallow in constant rage, feel godly right about everything, and lash out in everyday society. The liberal project had wandered down some stupid excessive paths, and could use reining in, but this set the stage for total bitter conflict and instability. And here we are. The reasonable center has melted away. Also social media primed people to click on extremes and follow them, also in thought. So, much of the society has descended into a vicious cartoon of itself. Look at the tone of the WH messaging — unbelievably uncivilized! And the crowds seem to love it.
There was a line by Bill Blain, a UK citizen and financial writer, that said (and he may have been quoting someone else) “Democracy does not die when a leader lies, democracy dies when the citizens stop caring that he lies”.
What is so disheartening about this is that there is no more rule of law, the country will become like Russia, just some favored few that get all the meat, the scraps is for the rest of the country. A country where 30-40% of the people not only tolerate this type of action but want this will not prosper, but decline.
This post deserves 2 Mish stars
And yet 40% of the country adores him. Time for the split. Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee must be split off and renamed “The Zion Trump! Confederate Empire”, and the 40% resettled there with the Trump Dynasty ruling on into the future. The rest of us can take a long shower and rebuild the USA.
A split might actually accelerate wealth outflow from Prog Blue states / cities.
Riiiiiiiiight. Thousands of wealthy Californians are sooooooo eager to move to Bumblefuck, Mississippi!
Yesterday I went to an estate auction of farm equipment in Tennessee. There were at least 100 people there not one MAGA hat not one trump tee shirt.
My son just took a business trip driving through NC, GA, AR and East TX, he said he saw two Trump signs where he saw too many to count just a year ago.
I think most MAGA’s and a lot of evangelicals are realizing what FAFO means. Too bad it’s so late and it will take years to undo the damage done so far.
Its bad enough i have to get a nat parks pass with his face on it. They are voiding them if you put a sticker over his face by the way. But least i know in my wallet he will be kissing my big ole but for the next year.
Seeing how i need a new pass port this year i did a quick ai search. Thank goodness its limited quantity and in person in dc or something like that.
Still it goes a long way to saying the wrong thing.
Ps the nat parks actually make money but the republicans are such business people they cut funding every time they get a chance.
I recently went to Shenandoah NP and New River Gorge NP and there were no operators at the entry stattions. So I didn’t bother buying a pass. Just blow off the entry fee until someone confronts you about it. I get the feeling that park personnel could give a rat’s ass about it with Lord God Shitstain in charge.
This is the first comment in the Substack article cited for this post:
And you have to carry it for 10 yrs.
The Chief Pedophile of the United States makes clear in his message that he is the sworn enemy of every American. Of course the inbred white trash scum that form his base will never see a passport.
About everything Trump has done makes me sick with the exception of controlling the southern border. This passport thing is worse than his insulting citizens, nations or anything that does not genuflect his way, worse than his America last policies he brands as America first, worse than his disregard for our founding documents and rule of law, worse than his outright disdain possibly even contumely for the American citizen; this is plain childish.
Was it worth it to see less brown people?
Oh man. I want so much for super hard-working and entrepreneurial families to stay out of the USA. You know the type: they put roofs on houses in 100 degree heat and other treacherous jobs. They save every penny and open their own restaurants and contracting companies, employing dozens. They sacrifice everything so their kids can grow up in a free country, go to college and never have to live the lives they did. I really like that they rot in their own countries, so us white folks don’t have to compete with them while high on oxy.
And the worst part is they took our oxy too. And quaaludes. That’s when this nation really turned downward.
I’m also pretty happy to get trannies out of women’s sports and locker rooms and story hours. Ending DEI nonsense has also been a great.
Everything else, not so much. Which shows how low the bar was for Democrats to defeat him was and they couldn’t even clear that.
To quote a wise man, “God are you people stupid.”
I’m glad my passport doesn’t expire years from now, I travel the world and would hate to see the resentment when I flash the mug of that hideous filthy boomer at immigration if I had one of those passports. 938 days for that clown to leave office.
Do worry, Trump, Walrus and the GOP will find a way to make things even worse.™
I’m in the process of renewing my passport. If it comes back with an image of that fat orange fuck staring back at me I’m going to scream.
The flag will be enough. We’re marked now. We will be blamed for the global economic collapse.
When will this start? I have a couple years on mine but will go fast if I can avoid this.
Limited supply / in person app in dc/. Dounds like only for but kissers.
Trump just wants to keep TDS going. Every time Progressives travel internationally, they have to look at his face.
Every historical sign says something awful this way comes, but this distills that into a single document. Here you have a man who fancies himself a king that demonstrably doesn’t understand a very basic document he’s putting his face on. The results will speak for themselves.
The results are presently legion, in the biblical sense.
Stupid won. Smart just didn’t have the numbers.
That’s okay, stupid balances out after they get the idea to start refusing medicine
Did Trump misunderstand passports? No, he was making a joke, at the 5D chess level.
Of course Trump knows what it is all for: the same purpose as luxury hotels, public arts venues, and monuments: to propagate his brand, and portray him as the welcoming five-star innkeeper, landlord and source of all its glories, historic or current. He doesn’t care if it is private-label cheap vodka, Trump steaks, US currency, Trump University diplomas, golden sneakers, Trump Bibles, or meme coins. They are all worthless tchochkes, existing to replicate his radiant visage and give others opportunities for adoration.
Trump is a parasite: the longer we host, the more we are toast.
Did Trump confuse a passport with a visa?
He confused his (alleged) assault victim with an earlier wife, so anything is possible
Trump is confused every 30 seconds.