The Atlantic [no paywall]: “Last week, Donald Trump’s White House anticipated the impending government shutdown like an album release, placing a massive countdown clock at the top of WhiteHouse.gov. “Democrat Shutdown Is Imminent,” read the online home of the People’s House, on a black background. Now that the shutdown has happened, a clock is counting upward: “Democrats Have Shut Down the Government,” it says, with numbers climbing to mark the seconds, minutes, hours, and days that have elapsed. This is an unusual use of the White House website. Though WhiteHouse.gov has always been a place to showcase the administration’s agenda, it has mostly looked like the website of a mid-size high school… But when Trump returned to office in January 2025, his transition team had a redesign ready to go. The first day, the website was transformed. Visitors saw an auto-playing trailer with an action-movie score—helicopter, jets, eagle, salute, thumbs-up, then a new White House logo in which said house was mostly black. After the video came a landing page with a photo of Trump and the message “AMERICA IS BACK” written in a new, spindly serif font on a dark navy background. Unmistakably, the design evokes the concept of “dark mode,” the default app setting for guys who take themselves very seriously and who relish the idea that they may be edgy and cool. (A friend of mine used to react to people putting their phones in dark mode by saying “Okay, Batman.”) By the way, the site is no longer available in Spanish…The same “dark mode” font treatment and color scheme have been used on the White House…This new team reportedly replaces a group of United States Digital Service and General Services Administration employees, many of whom resigned or were fired during the DOGE cuts earlier this year. It is tasked with modernizing the government’s digital services, but it also promises to beautify them. A launch page for the National Design Studio specifically names the Apple Store as a north star. (The White House initially responded to my request for an interview with the new team, but didn’t respond to subsequent attempts to schedule one.)..”