On a very related note, had meant to pick this up earlier this month but plate got too full with all this batshittery going on: The Bulwark’s migrant beat guy Adrian Carrasquilo wrote on February 5th that the Trump Regime were plotting to do whatever they could to prevent a repeat of the horror stories and images spreading like they did during the family separation shitshow his first failed term in an effort not to piss away the thin but real reserve of political capital they have to round people up.
“Trump’s team has deployed a massive public-relations effort to put a deeply patriotic gloss on their policy, with cabinet officials cosplaying as body-armor-wearing ICE agents and TV personalities being brought along during the agency’s raids. They’re also trying to condition supporters and the public to not go wobbly when troubling footage does inevitably surface,” Carrasquilo wrote. He then cited a reply to a video of shitbag podcaster Theo Von laughing about someone being deported about the effort as epitomizing the nervousness in the MAGAverse. “We’re going to have to suck it up, it’s really going to get tough. They will tug at our emotions. Stand strong, America! It’s for the greater good,” a woman wrote, later deleting the comment for reasons unclear.