The White House has released a series of free arcade games on its official website, including a deportation-themed game and a Tetris-style border wall builder, prompting widespread criticism.
The five games, branded as the White House Arcade, are based on classic titles such as Tetris and Snake. Promotional clips include Trumpified versions of start-up screens used by PlayStation, Xbox and Nintendo, while another animation replaces Sega's famous logo with the word “MAGA”.
Games based on Trump policies
In the Tetris-style Build the Wall, players stack bricks to stop a “coming horde” crossing the border. Rio Run turns Snake into a deportation game, with border tsar Tom Homan collecting migrants who trail behind him in orange jumpsuits.
Flappy Bill involves guiding a bald eagle carrying legislation past obstacles over Washington. Supply Line asks players to remove additives, food colouring and seed oils from school lunches in keeping with the Make America Healthy Again campaign.
Trump Savings Tycoon sees players catch cash to fill children's government-backed Trump Accounts.
White House defends the release
A White House spokesperson said the games are designed to “tell the story of the President’s many accomplishments in a way that resonates with every American.”
They added: “The President continues to rack up victory after victory on behalf of the American public, while opponents of his agenda are defending their record of raising taxes and empowering criminal illegal aliens.”
“This is an effort to further contrast between a culture of fun and winning and the dark socialist vision Democrats have for America.”
Widespread criticism online
The games have been widely criticised on social media, with one review branding the collection a “horrible little propaganda arcade”.
George Osborn, author of Power Play: Video Games, Politics and the Battle for Global Influence, warned that putting the arcade on the official White House website marked a significant escalation in the administration's use of gaming culture.
Professor and policy consultant Adam Cochran called its launch a “pathetic and shameful moment in American history”, while one furious gamer urged Sega to take action, saying it was “disturbing” to see its branding and music apparently used for “fascist propaganda”.
