The White House has frequently piggybacked on the gaming industry.
Last September, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released an ICE enforcement promotional video themed around "Pokémon," featuring clips from the Pokémon anime, its theme song, and the iconic Pokémon family font. At the end of the video, several arrested individuals were even turned into "Pokémon" cards, leveraging every possible association. In response, The Pokémon Company quickly distanced itself, stating that they did not produce the video and had not authorized the U.S. government to use their intellectual property.
Even though such actions provoke dissatisfaction among game developers and many players, the U.S. government has not stopped down this path of piggybacking. With the announcement of the new "Halo" title last October, the DHS account posted a game image with the caption "Fight the Flood," alluding to ICE's ongoing anti-immigration operations, continuing to leverage gaming hype to promote political views. This led veteran "Halo" developers, including Marcus Lehto and Jaime Griesemer, to publicly speak out, describing such behavior as despicable and absolutely disgusting.
However, despite unified opposition from developers and players, relevant spokespersons continued to state: "We will reach people in their communities with content they resonate with and understand, whether it's 'Halo,' 'Pokémon,' 'The Lord of the Rings,' or any other medium."
As a result, we frequently see a wave of posts attempting to piggyback on popular trends.
For example, this March, when "Pokémon Pokopia" was just released, the White House's X account directly used the game's key visual to create a promotional poster, replacing the original title with the famous slogan "Make America Great Again." In response, The Pokémon Company quickly issued a statement clarifying that they were not involved in creating or distributing the image and that the White House had not obtained any intellectual property license for "Pokémon." Furthermore, the spokesperson went further to state that The Pokémon Company's mission is to unite the world, a mission unrelated to any political views or agendas.
Shortly after, the White House released another mashup video featuring a wide array of classic films, TV shows, animations, and games. Viewers could spot numerous pop culture staples like "Call of Duty," "Mortal Kombat," and "Halo." Following the video's release, backlash emerged from various quarters—after all, this pattern has repeated itself so often that no one seems able to do anything about it.
Therefore, when the White House released another promotional video piggybacking on the gaming industry a few days ago, I wasn't surprised at all. It was only after I clicked the link and saw the content that I exclaimed: Wow, the White House can actually make games.
On September 3 local time, the White House website added a new page titled "ARCADE," featuring five web-based mini-games playable online. Each corresponds to a policy being promoted by the Trump administration, with additional slots reserved to预告 future games.
The White House's X account also posted multiple videos to promote this. As for the specific promotional method... well, those who know, know—they're just piggybacking.
The first video released was an overview montage showcasing gameplay from all five games. The opening was quite straightforward—it recreated SEGA's logo as "MAGA," even meticulously imitating the SEGA console's startup sound, using the same electronic voice to chant this political slogan.
Subsequently, more videos of the same type were posted on the White House's X account. For instance, one video clearly mimics the startup screen of Nintendo's GameCube, with identical sound effects and animations, except for the final frame, which was changed to a web promotion.
The latest promotional animation also appears to be piggybacking on the Nintendo DS handheld's startup screen. Even the copy specifically references GTA 6, showing considerable ambition.
So, how good is this game "platform," accessible directly from the White House website, bold enough to piggyback on major publishers, and even rival GTA 6?
To find out, I personally tested them for everyone.
First up is "Build the Wall." From the visuals, it's clear that the game's "inspiration" comes from the famous Tetris. However, unlike Tetris, this game lacks a line-clearing mechanic. Instead, you must stack blocks higher and higher to "build the wall."
So why build a wall? Because the game's subtitle is "Zombie Border Siege." Zombies continuously spawn on the right side of the screen and crash into the stacked blocks. Building high walls to stop zombies coming from the border is the core concept of "Build the Wall."
So what happens if they aren't stopped? Another game called "Rio Run" might provide the answer. In this game, you play as Tom Homan, the U.S. government's border affairs chief, chasing immigrants of different skin colors along the Rio Grande at the U.S.-Mexico border.
The gameplay is simple because it completely copies "Snake." However, instead of eating fruit, the snake eats people. Immigrants randomly appear on the screen, and Tom Homan must continuously arrest them, making the line behind him longer to achieve a higher score.
Of course, if we're talking about the most "game-like" entry, I'd say it has to be "FLAPPY BILL." Players control a bald eagle clutching a bill, dodging marble columns on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. It imitates the once-popular smartphone game "Flappy Bird," representing the most basic kind of reskinning—with little creativity. It appears to convey a message but ultimately says nothing.
In contrast, the two games "Supply Line" and "Trump Savings Tycoon" place greater emphasis on political messaging.
The primary gameplay of the former involves selecting processed foods that shouldn't be included in school lunches from a conveyor belt, ensuring only natural foods pass through, ultimately achieving the goal of "Make America Healthy Again." This promotes the Make America Healthy Again Commission established in 2025.
The latter involves players catching money falling from the sky with a net. While this might sound bizarre, it is actually promoting the Trump administration's "Trump Accounts" initiative for children. Under this policy, eligible children can have accounts opened by their parents, with U.S. children born between 2025 and 2028 receiving a one-time government seed funding of $1,000. The game simplifies this policy into catching money falling from the sky.
At this point, I have experienced all five games currently available on the White House website. In my opinion, their gameplay is clichéd, their content is barren, and their propaganda is stiff. They are not worth spending time on. Any version mini-game from a domestic Chinese gacha game would be ten thousand times better than these things.
Furthermore, even that tiny bit of gameplay was copied verbatim. Major companies should really start calculating the damages.
Soon, The Tetris Company issued a statement declaring that they were not involved in the production of "Build the Wall," adding that "we take copyright infringement very seriously." More importantly, the accompanying image stated: "Tetris" believes in the power of connecting people and bringing them together, rather than separating them. Although only one company has spoken out so far, The Tetris Company's response indicates that the issue extends beyond mere copyright concerns.
For those directly affected by these issues, the discomfort caused by the White House's use of games extends far beyond copyright concerns.
The co-director of the Eagle Pass Border Coalition in Texas stated that these games made her feel sick, adding that the government has been "toying with people's lives for years" and has now "turned what they are doing into a video game." Other border workers expressed that, amid deaths in detention centers, this exposes the administration's lack of seriousness, presenting issues as if they were a game when they are not.
Similarly, under the White House's related posts on X, there was no shortage of opposition to this gamification. Many criticized such behavior as "treating lives as a joke," "making fun of immigrants," and "lacking empathy," opposing these promotional tactics.
But opposition is ineffective. The White House is clearly quite willing to use such promotional methods—from initially piggybacking on games to now personally producing policy-promotion games, this approach has been consistent. In fact, when these games launched, White House Digital Strategy Director Kaelan Dorr described them as "interactive policy," openly acknowledging their promotional nature.
However, they seem to have forgotten one thing. As the American media outlet Reason pointed out, although the White House captioned these game releases with "Can't Stop Winning," these five titles, which simply copy traditional arcade mechanics, are destined to lose in the end.
"Build the Wall" will eventually stack to the top, "Rio Run" will inevitably crash into itself, "Supply Line" will miss food items, and "Trump Savings Tycoon" might also fail. Not to mention "Flappy Bill"—the bald eagle carrying the bill can never reach the end, and the bill will inexplicably be dropped halfway... If the White House truly believes these games serve a promotional purpose, the message conveyed feels somewhat like America is heading toward its demise.
But on second thought, they probably don't care about these criticisms anyway.
After all, to some extent, this might be the strategy that generates the most traffic. First, piggyback on pop culture and well-known companies, forcing them to issue statements, which raises awareness among more people. Then, incite outrage among players and the general public, thereby spreading their propaganda... The White House has certainly mastered the art of thriving on negative attention.
Perhaps the most regrettable aspect is that you never know what will be dragged into this next, or which companies and players will be disgusted by such behavior in the future. From a formal perspective, the path from using mass entertainment to promote politics to directly borrowing the expressive form of games for propaganda has clearly not reached its end. No one knows what will happen in the future.
Moreover, the White House website still displays "Coming Soon."
