'This is a bit much': Onlookers recoil as Trump's scowl hits new US passports
U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he sits in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., June 26, 2026. REUTERS/Ken Cedeno

President Donald Trump unveiled new U.S. passports featuring his face, and onlookers can't help but recoil in their online reactions.

In a Friday Truth Social post, Trump shared a picture of the new passport designs, which commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States with a portrait of the president scowling superimposed over the Declaration of Independence.

"The U.S.A.'s New Passport, which says, 'Welcome, but be good!'" Trump announced in his post.

However, reactions on Bluesky struck a different tone from Trump's enthusiasm.

"Kim Jong Un thinks this is a bit much," journalist Aaron Rupar joked in a reaction.

"Trump superimposing his image over the document that lists his tyrannical abuses of power is a choice," quipped historian and political writer Michael Breen.

"Glad I already have one without this a— picture," posted writer Scott Whitmore.

"It also doesn't make any sense why the message of 'welcome, but be good' would be on a U.S. passport," Gizmodo reporter Matt Novak pointed out. "Are you welcoming the U.S. citizens who hold the passport...to America?"

"Welcome to who?" Asked data journalist Philip Bump in reaction to Trump's Truth Social post. "Citizens? What?"

"Do they understand that passports are for American citizens who are leaving the country?" wrote political scientist Jonathan Ladd, thinking along a similar track as Bump.

"I don't think Trump knows what a passport does," journalist and columnist Katelyn Burns posted.

"If I had to get a passport with his photo, I would get another as soon as he was no longer president, or was dead, whichever came first," author Thaddeus Howze wrote. "I'm certain when he is no longer president, no one will WANT his picture on a godd— thing unless it is the Donald Trump Penitentiary and Penal Colony."

Kim Jong Un thinks this is a bit much

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— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) June 26, 2026 at 2:13 PM