Why Trump's in-your-face campaign will never end

Zoom in: Much of Trump's offensive plays out through a "Rapid Response 47" account the White House has set up on X, which according to its bio is focused on "supporting POTUS's America First agenda and holding the Fake News accountable."

• On Jan. 31, the Rapid Response account posted a message portraying House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) as violent for promising that Democrats will "fight" Trump's agenda "legislatively… in the courts, and … in the streets."
• Thursday afternoon, the feed posted a sarcastic response to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), who had posted about pulling an all-nighter on the Senate floor in protest of Trump's nominee to lead the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought.
• "Stunning and brave," Trump's team wrote.
• A day earlier, the account had derided Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) as "the weirdest man in Washington, D.C."

Between the lines: White House staffers also are using their personal government accounts on X to bash Trump opponents, sometimes in personal ways. Those posts often are amplified on the White House account.

• White House communications director Steven Cheung on Wednesday said of Texas Democratic Rep. Jasmine Crockett: "Jasmine Crock-o–Sh*t wants men to play in women's sports." That was after Crockett criticized Trump for signing an executive order banning transgender women from participating in women's sports.
• Cheung called Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz a "cuck" after Walz had described influential Trump adviser Elon Musk a "terrible president."
• And Cheung labeled Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono "one of the most unserious goofballs in Congress" after she criticized new Attorney General Pam Bondi.
• Alex Pfeiffer, another White House communications official, on Friday called Democratic Rep. Darren Soto not "too bright" after Soto called the January jobs report "WEAK" under Trump, who took office Jan. 20.

The White House digital team, meanwhile, has been pushing out videos that are designed to trigger liberals and go viral on conservative media.

• The team's latest production, released Friday, was actually milder than most: A video celebrating Trump's executive order targeting transgender women.
• It features girls, young women and mothers talking about the importance of protecting girls and women in sports. "I think it's not fair that boys are running against girls," a girl says in the 90-second video, which the White House released on Friday.
• Last week, the team released a video featuring mothers whose children's deaths were linked to undocumented immigrants, criticizing singer Selena Gomez for an Instagram post in which she grew emotional over Trump's deportations plan.

The big picture: Past administrations used official government social media accounts and surrogates to spread their messages, typically in the official-speak of Washington.

• That's not the formula with this White House, which is stocked with former campaign advisers who say the political, media and social media environment has changed.
• "There's no point not engaging like this. There's a nonstop war against us," a senior White House official involved with the messaging told Axios.
• "Are we supposed to take it and just leave it up to the press briefing to get our message out? That doesn't make sense."

The other side: Andrew Bates, a White House spokesperson under President Biden, said the White House's strategy is more deflection than swagger.

• It's a tell that they know they're on defense when it comes to voters' top priority: Trump's now-broken, #1 campaign promise of lowering costs on 'Day 1,' " Bates said.
• "... The press team is clearly feeling the heat as they try to obscure those failures."

White House officials say their brass-knuckle approach reaches more people than duller, more traditional White House messaging of the past.

• One White House official said posts on the new Rapid Response team's X account already have generated more than 60 million views.