The granddaughter of iconic American painter Norman Rockwell has publicly condemned the administration of former President Donald Trump for using her grandfather's work to advance what she calls a "segregationist view of America." Daisy Rockwell's sharp criticism targets the Department of Homeland Security's use of Rockwell's paintings to promote its immigration enforcement agenda.
A Legacy Misappropriated
In an interview with The Bulwark and a recent USA Today op-ed, Daisy Rockwell expressed her family's profound dismay. She stated they were "upset" by social media posts from DHS that used Norman Rockwell's art to urge people to "defend" and "protect our American way of life" while the agency pursued a policy of mass deportations. She argued this co-opts work that was fundamentally opposed to such views.
"Norman Rockwell was antifa," Daisy Rockwell told The Bulwark in late December 2025, using the term for the decentralized, anti-fascist movement that Trump had designated a domestic terrorist organization in September of that year. She emphasized her grandfather was "really very clearly anti-segregationist."
Rockwell's True Values: Compassion and Justice
The artist, famous for his "Four Freedoms" series and powerful scenes of everyday American life, did not shy away from tackling racism and injustice. One of his most famous works depicts Ruby Bridges, the first Black child to desegregate a Louisiana elementary school, being escorted by U.S. marshals past a wall defaced with a racist slur.
Daisy Rockwell and other family members wrote in their op-ed that if the artist were alive today, he would be "devastated" to see that the prejudice Bridges faced persists and that his art is now "marshalled for the cause of persecution toward immigrant communities and people of color."
They pointed to Rockwell's own words from a 1962 interview, where he confessed: "I was born a white Protestant with some prejudices that I am continuously trying to eradicate... I am angry at unjust prejudices, in other people and myself."
A Call to Reclaim an Artist's Vision
The controversy highlights the ongoing political battle over national symbols and values. For the Rockwell family, the administration's use of the paintings represents a fundamental betrayal. "I wish I knew what Norman Rockwell might have said about Trump’s theft of his life’s work in service of state-sponsored terror," Daisy Rockwell mused.
Ultimately, the family's message is a call to action. They declared it is time to follow in the artist's footsteps and "stand for the values he truly wished to share with us and all Americans: compassion, inclusiveness and justice for all." This stance firmly places Norman Rockwell's legacy in opposition to the policies his art was recently used to promote.
