Nazi slogan on DHS podium
Executive summary
A phrase reading "One of ours, all of yours" appeared on the Department of Homeland Security podium during Secretary Kristi Noem's January 8 press conference, provoking claims—most prominently from musician-activist Tom Morello—that the wording echoes a Nazi-era reprisal slogan linked to the Lidice massacre of 1942 [1] [2] [3]. The DHS pushed back against such characterizations while historians and reporters cited in the coverage say the direct provenance of the exact phrase to Nazi sources is disputed or unconfirmed in primary records [4] [5] [6].
1. What actually appeared and when
Photographs and video from the January 8, 2026 DHS press event show Secretary Kristi Noem standing behind a lectern bearing the printed phrase "One of ours, all of yours," and the images circulated widely after the conference, which followed the killing of Renee Nicole Good by an ICE officer that had sparked protests and media attention [2] [4] [3].
2. Who amplified the Nazi-slogan claim and why it landed
Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello publicly accused the administration of quoting a "Nazi mass murder slogan," linking the phrase to reprisals ordered after the assassination of Nazi official Reinhard Heydrich and the subsequent razing of the Czech village of Lidice in June 1942; Morello shared the podium photo on social media and framed the language as a verbatim echo of that brutal reprisal doctrine [1] [2] [7].
3. The DHS response and the administration’s framing
When outlets sought comment, the Department of Homeland Security dismissed broad Nazi comparisons as overreach—telling Billboard that "calling everything you dislike 'Nazi propaganda' is tiresome"—and the administration defended its messaging even as public backlash mounted [4] [2].
4. What historians and reporters say about the phrase’s provenance
Several news reports note that while the Lidice reprisal and similar Nazi collective punishments are well-documented, there is no clearly cited primary-source evidence in the stories provided that the exact English formulation "One of ours, all of yours" was a documented Nazi slogan; some journalists and a German-speaker quoted in coverage express skepticism about attributing that literal phrasing directly to Nazi propaganda, stressing that the linkage being circulated online is contested [5] [6].
5. Why the optics matter regardless of textual origin
Observers argue that even if the phrase is not a literal historic Nazi quote, its placement on an official podium by the nation’s top homeland-security official—coming a day after a controversial ICE shooting—carries symbolic force and invited interpretations of collective punishment or dog-whistle politics; critics tied that symbolism to broader reports of similar phrasing appearing in other Trump administration communications, intensifying concern [5] [8].
6. Competing interpretations and potential agendas
Supporters of the administration view the reactions as politicized attacks and defend the language as innocuous or misread, while critics see it as part of a pattern of authoritarian or exclusionary messaging; social-media amplification by high-profile activists like Morello and viral news cycles likely magnified the controversy and limited nuanced historical vetting in initial coverage [1] [2] [7].
7. What reporting does not establish and next steps for clarity
Available reporting documents the podium display, public accusations tying it to Nazi reprisals, the DHS rebuttal, and historical context about Lidice, but the sources provided do not supply a definitive primary-source citation showing the Nazi leadership used this exact English phrase—so definitive attribution remains unproven in these accounts; further clarity would require historians locating contemporaneous German-language orders, propaganda texts, or archival translations that match the phrase [5] [6].