Thomas Kinkade's family (!) sent DHS a cease-and-desist letter:

[demmiblue]

Thomas Kinkade's family (!) sent DHS a cease-and-desist letter www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/...

— Jonathan L. Fischer (@jonfischer.bsky.social) 2025-07-29T18:55:09.155Z

Unexpectedly good politics from Thomas Kinkade's family! www.kinkadefamilyfoundation.org

— Joshua J. Friedman (@joshuajfriedman.com) 2025-07-29T19:00:51.465Z

[senseandsensibility]

1. I am glad to see this

especially since my recollection is that TK was a rightwinger back in the 90's.

[BaronChocula]

6. And some weird behavioral issues

involving substance abuse.

[AllaN01Bear]

25. me too.

[calimary]

31. Me three.

[demmiblue]

2. DHS is posting Americana paintings and migrant mugshots. The art world is not happy.

Homeland Security is sharing images of pastoral paintings bookended by posts cheering Trump’s deportation campaign. Some artists are pushing back.

The Department of Homeland Security’s social media feed in early July was largely filled with images of “Alligator Alcatraz” and promises to “MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN” by deporting the “WORST OF THE WORST.”

Then the agency shared an image of Thomas Kinkade’s “Morning Pledge,” a painting depicting children walking to a schoolhouse where an American flag towers in the yard.

“Protect the Homeland,” DHS wrote.

The American artist died in 2012, but when his family saw how his work was being used by the Trump administration, they were aghast. Kinkade was deeply committed to humanitarian causes, a spokesperson for the Kinkade Family Foundation told The Washington Post, and made paintings that offered a sense of dignity and hope, especially to those denied basic human rights. That felt starkly in contrast with DHS’s mass deportation campaign and its social media account depicting immigrants as criminals.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2025/07/29/trump-dhs-immigrants-social-paintings/

[Initech]

19. This shit is so fucking weird.

I can't imagine who this is for. Let's mask the horror of mass deportations with some...art.

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

34. It's for Krissy's "colored hating" base in South Dakota and North Dakota...

... talk to Republican ladies in South Dakota, the WHITE manifest destiny (even if they do not know that) is all that counts. Oh, and "I support Trump because no wars"! Yep, that is what they tell me.

[mountain grammy]

3. Showing America how to stand up against the tyranny of this regime

And to those who give up without even considering a fight, a pox on your houses!

[soldierant]

4. Just for the sake of clarity,

the painting shown in the BlueSky posts is not the Kinkade painting. You can see the Kinkade painting here - as a jigsaw puzzlw, but at least it's the right painting
https://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Kinkade-Morning-Pledge-1000-Piece/dp/B00009932J

I'm not surprised that DHS would also abuse contemporary artists, even living ones (though Kinkade is not), but they also reached into history for the 1872 "American Progress" by John Gast. The blonde female figure is supposed to be "Columbia" - as in the song "Hail Columbia," which clearly continued to be used as a synonym for the United States for at least a hundred years after the Revolution. The image is meant as a visual representation of "Manifest Destiny." Please forgive me for not addressing the artictic quality of either image.

The Kinkade family has, i'm sure, legal rights in the matter - Thomas has not been dead for 75 years so the family must still own the copyright - and I hope they take DHS to court for a bundle.

[Historic NY]

35. And the song Hail Columbia (a tune for Washington) was composed by

a Hessian Philip Phile who came and stayed here. Later edited by Joseph Hopkinson . Phile was a band leader captured at Trenton in Dec. 1776, he was a member of Knyphausens Regt.

[LoisB]

5. When the Department of Homeland Security was created, I knew nothing good would come

of it. That word "Homeland" just seemed so out of place in U.S. government.

[BaronChocula]

7. I know, right?

It struck me the same way "Der Vaterland" would. Totally creeped me out.

[LoisB]

9. Yes! It creeped me out too.

[erronis]

11. I knew someone who worked for another US agency when DHS was created (post 9/11)

He seemed a decent enough person until he became part of this Cheney/Bush monstrosity. Then all humanity left him.

[BaronChocula]

21. Oh boy, don't get me started...

My dad worked for Immigration and Naturalization and retired as an assistant commissioner. A lot of his later work was in intelligence. I know some of his work involved things like tracking down Nazi war criminals. His last detail was working on a task force on borders, and crime under veep GHWB in the Reagan (yuck) White House. Luckily it didn't completely change his views on politics, at least not permanently. He retired in 1989, years before the SS-ification of federal law enforcement agencies under the new Homeland Security.

When we lived in New York he worked at 20 West Broadway in Manhattan. It was right across from the World Trade Center. The first words I heard from the clock radio the morning of 9/11/2001 were "I'm standing in the doorway of 20 West Broadway..." (I still don't know how that's possible due to the destruction) and I kept trying to figure out where I knew that address from. And slowly things came back to me. Needless to say, it was not a happy day for Dad who was vacationing with Mom at the time.

[erronis]

24. That's a sad story.

Fortunately, my father who was part of several administrations since Truman didn't live to see 9/11. The fiasco of the W's revenge tour in Iraq had just started.

Like you, I'm sure - we'd love to hear their opinions of the current state of affairs. But also glad they can't see how far we've descended.

hugs.

[BaronChocula]

26. Amen to that

My parents did get to see Obama elected. My father commented on grinning ear-to-ear on Inauguration Day 2009. Unfortunately they did not get to see Prez Puffy get defeated in 2020.

[LoisB]

22. That is sad. I have a feeling that happened to many people because we sure have

descended rapidly as a country. We seem to have totally lost any moral high ground since then.

[Hekate]

12. Damn right. It's straight out of 2 millennia of European wars claiming "Blood & Soil" & of course God...

…as absolute requirements for membership in a society. Very, very tribal. America was founded on an idea, not a tribe.

The whole “Homeland” thing that Dubya imposed on us made me cringe at the time, and still aggravates me now.

[LoisB]

29. 100%.

[madamesilverspurs]

14. My immediate response to the creation of that department --

"Uber alles?" Hasn't changed.

.

[LoisB]

23. Indeed.

[llmart]

28. Thank you!

I felt that way from Day 1.

[LoisB]

30. I think a lot of us did. At least, those of us who value what the U.S. is supposed to be.

[pfitz59]

8. I grew up with Thomas and Patrick Kinkade

in a bright red mill town in NorCal. Thomas has passed but his brother Patrick still runs the show. He is a College Professor and literate world traveler. I can understand his stance on this.

[BurnDoubt]

10. MAGA Corrupts Everything It Touches.

Corrosive "Patriotism".

[melm00se]

13. This is the offending post

Link to tweet

[tavernier]

15. Nice!

I too had heard that TK was a Republican and it had turned me off of his work. I still find that style a bit too romantic for my tastes. I like the grizzlier reflections of life, such as Mr. Rembrandt’s collection. (Once on tour at the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, I stumbled on a hallway filled with his works, on loan from museums around the world.. I nearly swooned from joy and almost got into a fight with our tour director who gave us five minutes to walk the hallway before venturing on to other things. Blasphemy!)

Anyway, my apologies to Mr. Kinkade. And thanks to his family for that.

[Oneironaut]

16. This is so overtly Fascist, it's incredible.

It's "living area for our glorious race" for the new generation. Not even subtle.

[tanyev]

17. Good. So tired of an administration that thinks winning daily meme wars equals governing.

[Upthevibe]

18. demmiblue...........

This is great that the Kinkade family has taken a stand!

I too always thought TK was a right-winger. I'm SO happy to hear this isn't the case. I actually have always really like his paintings.

Thank you so much for the post.

[Norbert]

20. I thought they were fairly far right.

So happy to see that it is not true.

[Xavier Breath]

27. Good to hear.

[pansypoo53219]

32. good for the crapkaid family, but i see why dim donnie used this.

[Betty Boom]

33. Kinkade's "art" is sentimental schlock -- but good for his family

It’s crap art, but I’ve gotta give it to the family.