The PR masterminds at the White House just released a series of vaguely policy-themed “arcade” games, some of which are racist — and modeled on real games whose copyright holders may not be too happy to be associated with the MAGA agenda.
The Tetris Company has already responded to “Build the Wall,” which is obviously modeled on the famous puzzle game. In the Trump administration’s game, the player has to stack interlocking shapes to stop a “zombie border siege” along the southern border. Aliens — the administration’s preferred term for noncitizens, and the subject of previous grotesque attempts at humor — run across the screen, trying to get to America before the gates are shut.
In a statement to The Verge, Tetris spokesperson Kerri Brusca clarified that the company wasn’t involved in the creation of Donald Trump’s game. “For more than 40 years, Tetris has brought people together across generations and cultures through play and joy. The objective of the game has always been to stack with purpose to clear as many lines as possible,” Brusca said. “We are currently reviewing the matter.”
The various companies whose brands the White House ripped off to make and promote these games — including Sega, Nintendo, Xbox, and the Flappy Bird Foundation Group — did not immediately respond to The Verge’s request for comment.
The purpose of Trump’s interminable memes, games, and other gimmicks is manifold: to drum up support for Trump’s policies, to entertain his groyper fans, and, of course, to troll the libs. (One game, “Rio Run,” is like snake, except the head of the snake is a Border Patrol agent who collects migrants as he moves across the screen. Ha ha, get it? The president is deporting people.) But the games also inadvertently highlight the administration’s policy failures, not to mention the hypocrisy of Trump’s agenda.
Trump’s efforts to build a wall through protected lands in the Southwest, including Big Bend National Park, has been met with mass opposition — even from Republicans in deep-red Texas who form a key part of the MAGA coalition.
Other games are similar reminders of how Trump’s policies are backfiring, even on the right.
There’s “Flappy Bill,” a play on Flappy Bird that involves getting a bald eagle to deliver a piece of legislation to the National Mall. Cute! Except the administration has rolled back protections under the Endangered Species Act, the landmark legislation that helped rescue bald eagles from the brink of extinction. The administration’s supposed revamping of the National Mall has also been unpopular.
In “Supply Line,” reminiscent of the game Tapper, you have to knock processed foods — those filled with additives, seed oils, and artificial colorings — off a conveyor belt before they get fed to schoolchildren. But Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. hasn’t managed to do any of that. Besides issuing a likely AI-drafted report for his Make America Healthy Again commission, RFK Jr.’s main role at HHS has been to roll back vaccine recommendations and food safety regulations. The administration’s gutting of the Food and Drug Administration made it harder to investigate the spread of cyclosporiasis, the so-called explosive diarrhea parasite, earlier this year.
If anything, these games serve as a great reminder that our well-being is a big joke to the president and the people who surround him.