JJust days after Microsoft unveiled Halo: Campaign Evolved, the anticipated installment in the renowned sci-fi franchise “White House” I posted an intriguing photo on X. The image, which seemingly originated from AI, depicts President Donald Trump clad in the armor of Halo’s legendary hero Master Chief, saluting in front of an American flag that has several stars missing. In his left hand, he holds an energy sword, a weapon associated with Halo’s alien adversaries. This was shared in response to a tweet from U.S. gaming retailer GameStop, with accompanying text reading “Power to the Players,” referencing the store’s slogan.

GameStop and the White House exchanged a few more Halo memes, and on October 27, the official Department of Homeland Security X account got involved as well. They utilized visuals from Halo showcasing soldiers from a futuristic realm to encourage enlistment in the increasingly militarized Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. The accompanying message, “Stop the Flood,” suggests a troubling analogy between America’s immigrant community and the parasitic aliens that Master Chief battles.

When I sought an official comment on this post, White House Deputy Press Secretary Khush Desai stated in an email: “Another war has concluded on President Trump’s watch. There’s only one leader who is dedicated to empowering his players, and that leader is Donald J. Trump.” “That’s why he enjoys significant support from the American public and gamers alike.” (Microsoft did not respond to requests for comment.)

Though this string of video game imagery may seem bizarre, Trump and his associates have been integrating gamer culture for almost a decade. Since his initial election, Trump has been appealing to gamers, a constituency that includes a significant segment of disenchanted youth. Media executive Steve Bannon joined the campaign in August 2016, acting as chief strategist and senior advisor, bringing extensive insight into video game culture and the online behavior of its most ardent enthusiasts.

Bannon had previously collaborated with the Hong Kong firm Internet Gaming Entertainment to secure funding. This firm paid low wages to Chinese laborers to collect gold in the multiplayer game World of Warcraft. According to Joshua Greene’s book on Bannon: (The Devil’s Deal: Steve Bannon, Donald Trump, and the Assault on the Presidency), Bannon recognized, “These rootless white men wield immense influence.” In 2014, Bannon observed GamerGate, a murky online force in the dark recesses of the web, consistently targeting women and other marginalized individuals in the gaming industry. He noted that the movement’s actions prompted tangible events such as sustained harassment and doxxing (the public release of personal data).

Upon joining the Trump campaign, Bannon utilized his grasp of gamer culture to propel Trump into new political realms. “You can mobilize that force. They are engaging via platforms like Gamergate and transitioning into politics and Trump,” Bannon informed Greene.

Their ranks were primed for meme warfare at a moment’s notice, and indeed, they were. Throughout the campaign, Trump’s meme battalion monitored and disseminated every move of then-candidate Hillary Clinton. They circulated fabricated health-related claims using the hashtag #HillaryHealth. Pro-Trump memes were frequently produced based on internet humor and niche pop culture references. It was perhaps owing to this brigade that Trump secured victory over Clinton in the 2016 presidential election.

Following his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election, Trump turned to his social media platform, Truth Social, where he persistently critiqued Biden and the Democratic Party throughout Biden’s four-year tenure. He continued to attract gamers and the online reactionary right until he regained the presidency. The second Trump administration remains reliant on the strategies and framework established by online agitators (or trolls), but this time, there is one crucial difference: Elon Musk.

The South African entrepreneur acquired Twitter in October 2022 and swiftly reinstated Trump’s banned account alongside many others. Musk, who frequently engages with gamer culture and shares memes on his platform, has further facilitated this trend.

Since President Trump assumed office in January, the White House and various federal agencies have begun disseminating memes. Last month, both the official Department of Homeland Security X account and the official White House TikTok account released a video of an ICE raid set to Pokémon theme music, interspersed with arcs from the animated series and clips of agents making arrests, accompanied by the slogan, “We’ve got to catch them all.” Following this, The Pokémon Company International informed the BBC that “permission was not granted to use our intellectual property.” Nonetheless, the video remains available as of this writing.

The video game industry has often remained silent about the reactionary politics and ideology that are prevalent in its community. For the millions of Americans engaged in gaming, who are disheartened by an administration that discourages pregnant individuals from taking Tylenol and promotes the narrative that immigrants are parasites while suggesting that the diversity, equity, and inclusion movement produces incompetent workers, it is deeply frustrating to witness these events. As the administration increasingly embraces video game iconography and internet memes, video game companies will inevitably find themselves, whether they like it or not, linked to the polarizing and reactionary politics of the right.