President Donald Trump has doubled down on his cringeworthy attempt to rebrand his wildly unpopular Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, ICE.
The immigration enforcement agency is widely viewed in a poor light. A poll conducted at the end of last month found that 46 percent of respondents look ICE, which has become a factor in Trump’s dwindling popularity ahead of the crucial midterm elections.
But the 79-year-old president last month shared a suggestion from a MAGA supporter to put a positive spin on ICE after brutal anti-migrant sweeps around the country and the fatal shooting of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti during protests in Minneapolis in January.
People gather during a vigil for Renee Nicole Good, who was shot and killed by an ICE agent. David Ryder/REUTERS
In April, the president shared an X post from a MAGA supporter seemingly designed to troll the media. It read, “I want Trump to change ICE to NICE (National Immigration and Customs Enforcement) so the media has to say NICE agents all day everyday.”
Trump endorsed the warm and fuzzy spin on the acronym of his toxic agency on Truth Social by adding “GREAT IDEA!!! DO IT. President DJT.”
Now, Trump has circled back to the “ICE to NICE” concept, sharing a logo for his ICE rebrand on Tuesday.
The logo features the bald eagle from the Great Seal of the United States.
Trump’s logo was then dutifully shared on the official Department of Homeland Security X account, with the caption, “National Immigration and Customs Enforcement” and an American flag emoji.
DHS share Donald Trump's NICE logo. screen grab
The Daily Beast has contacted the DHS for comment on what Trump’s post means for ICE moving forward.
The White House shared its own post on Tuesday, with Trump’s logo in slightly different colors, mocked up to appear on an agent’s uniform. The caption simply included the eyes emoji.
The White House shares another ICE logo rebrand. screen grab
“The President has never been shy about showing his admiration for the brave men and women of law enforcement,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson told the Daily Beast in a statement. “There is truly nothing nICEr than removing criminal illegal aliens from American communities!” Jackson did not address a possible official change to the agency’s title.
Pro-Trump conspiracy theorist Jack Posobiec posted on X, “ICE immigration agency officially renamed to NICE by Trump admin.” MAGA journalist Alyssa Dehen, who shared the original X post the president seized on, also embraced Trump’s new logo with the caption, “It’s happening!”
The flagging of a possible rebrand for ICE did not go unnoticed by the Democrats, who used their X account to point out that Good, the unarmed 37-year-old mother of three who was shot by ICE agent Jonathan Ross, was sworn at seconds before her death in Minneapolis.
Democrats comment on the ICE rebrand. screen grab
“Your agents killed a mother in cold blood and called her a ‘f---ing b---h,’” the post read.
On his own cellphone footage, Ross can be heard muttering the insult as Good’s car crashed into a parked vehicle. Members of the Trump administration justified the killing by branding her a “domestic terrorist.”
Minneapolis residents continue to pay tribute to Renee Good and Alex Pretti, both victims of fatal shootings by federal agents, and show their anger and demand that ICE leave their city. Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Hours after Trump floated the idea of an ICE rebrand last month, the Homeland Security X account shared a 30-second video filled with deliberately sentimental images of its agents.
Soundtracked by the upbeat Salt-N-Pepa 1993 hit “Whatta Man,” the video shows ICE officers shaking hands with passengers at airports and doing pushups with the word “NICE” covering their eyes.
However the video awkwardly used footage of an ICE agent stealing a rose from the slain mother’s memorial.
The agent picks up a rose from the street that had been part of the makeshift memorial to Good, then gives it to a female colleague. X
In the video, a heavily armed and masked agent holds a single red rose before passing it to a female colleague, who then places it inside her top.
“The flower in this shot was taken from a makeshift memorial to Renee Good and the incident caused outrage at the time,” American Immigration Council fellow Aaron Reichlin-Melnick wrote on X.
“The choice to include that shot in this video was deliberate trolling by our government.”