'America for Americans': Homeland Security Deleted Its AI Trucker Meme

Newsom's office and Central Valley Republican David Valadao condemned the Transformers-style image of a Sikh truck driver.

The Department of Homeland Security posted a “Transformers”-style image made by artificial intelligence to its official X account on September 9, 2026, then deleted it. The poster showed a bearded man in a bandanna facing a robot drawn to look like Optimus Prime, under the line “America for Americans,” the Los Angeles Times reported. The department didn't answer the newspaper's question about why it pulled the post.

The people in that frame drive for a living. Sikh and Indian truckers make up roughly 20% of the commercial trucking workforce, the Times reported, and the department has been running a tip line that asks the public to report drivers they suspect are in the country illegally.

A second line on the poster read: “Get off our roads, you don't know how to drive Mr. Singh.” Singh, which translates as “lion,” is the most common surname among Sikh men.

Homeland Security said the image depicted Harjinder Singh, an Indian truck driver charged with vehicular homicide in Florida. He has pleaded not guilty. The department says the crash between his 18-wheeler and a minivan killed three people. Photos the agency released show him in clothing similar to the figure in the deleted image, the Times reported.

Hasbro, which owns the franchise, said the department's posts were made “without permission and do not represent the Transformers brand or Hasbro.” Other Homeland Security posts that riff on “Transformers” haven't come down.

Sen. Adam Schiff wrote on X on September 10, 2026 that the administration was casting suspicion on millions of Americans over their background and appearance, and called the advertising campaign disgraceful. Rep. David Valadao, a Republican whose Hanford-based Central Valley district includes a large Sikh community, wrote that the post was unacceptable and said he was glad it was gone. The press office of Gov. Gavin Newsom reposted the deleted image and denounced it as racist propaganda.

The Sikh Coalition tied the post to the week the country marked 25 years since the September 11 attacks, after which Sikhs were targeted in hate crimes. “We remain fearless in identifying as Sikhs — even when our government portrays us as enemies,” the group wrote on X.

A Homeland Security spokesperson, who didn't give a name, told the newspaper by email that the criticism was “nonsensical drivel,” and said Harjinder Singh is in the country illegally and was granted a commercial driver's license by California.

That last part isn't a throwaway. The department has been naming California as the problem state in its campaign against immigrant commercial drivers. On September 1, 2026, federal officials shut down 110 trucking schools; they linked those schools to over 5,000 drivers who flunked English-proficiency testing, the Times reported.

The department deleted the poster and called the objection drivel. The other “Transformers” posts are still on its account.

Harjinder Singh's case is still pending in Florida, where he has pleaded not guilty.

Source: latimes.com, retrieved September 13, 2026.