The Propaganda Playbook Never Changes: A Picture Says the Opposite of a Thousand Words

Just six days ago, I wrote about a fundamental rule of modern politics: what leaders say is often the exact opposite of what they mean. [see Blog Post here]. “Peace” means war is coming. “Freedom” means more restrictions. It’s a game of linguistic doublespeak designed to package reality in a more palatable form.

And then, as if on cue, history provided a perfect, visual postscript.

Two days ago, Donald Trump posted a striking image on Truth Social. [see the Link here]. It was a diptych: one half showed him with Vladimir Putin, the other showed Richard Nixon with Nikita Khrushchev. The intended message was clear, blunt, and aimed directly at his base: See? I am a statesman of historical proportions. Like Nixon, I am strong enough to sit down with our greatest adversary and forge peace.

On the surface, it’s a powerful piece of political branding. It invokes a nostalgic vision of American strength, of a president unafraid to engage in high-stakes diplomacy. The image is meant to scream “peace through strength,” “détente,” and “master negotiator.”

But if we apply the translator we discussed last week, what does this image actually say?

This isn’t a message of peace. It’s a message of power alignment.

The Nixon-Khrushchev era wasn't a time of cozy friendship; it was the icy heart of the Cold War. Their meetings, including the famous “Kitchen Debate,” were tense negotiations between two nuclear-armed superpowers trying to avoid mutual annihilation while simultaneously undermining each other across the globe. To present this as a simple model for “peace” is to erase the decades of proxy wars, espionage, and existential dread that defined it. The peace they managed was the absence of direct, world-ending conflict, not genuine harmony.

By placing his own image with Putin alongside that historical moment, Trump is doing something far more subtle than just calling for peace. He is reframing the narrative.

1. It Legitimizes the Adversary: The photo visually equates Putin’s Russia with the Soviet Union—a superpower to be negotiated with, not an aggressor to be isolated. It bypasses the ongoing war in Ukraine to present its architect as a legitimate peer on the world stage.

2. It’s About “Strongman” Politics, Not Diplomacy: The underlying message is not about compromise, but about mutual respect between two powerful individuals who operate outside the traditional rules. The photo says, “He respects me, and I respect him. Only strong leaders can deal with other strong leaders.” This isn't a call for global stability; it's a celebration of a particular brand of authoritarian-style leadership.

3. It’s a Visual “We Want Peace”: Just like the verbal declaration I mentioned in my last post, this image serves as a justification for a potentially disruptive reality. The “peace” being sold here is one where established alliances might be discarded and international norms ignored in favor of personalized deals between two men.

The tactics really haven’t changed, only the medium. What used to require a carefully worded speech now gets communicated in a single, shareable image. The playbook remains the same: use a universally positive concept—in this case, the historical pursuit of peace—to mask a more complicated and often more confrontational agenda.

The language of politics, whether spoken or visual, is designed to be a wrapper. The Trump-Putin/Nixon-Khrushchev image is a masterclass in this. It wraps a complex, controversial relationship in the respectable, vintage paper of Cold War statesmanship.

But we know better. When a politician shows you a picture meant to symbolize peace, you should always ask what kind of war it’s trying to sell.