The White House has quietly removed a racist and not-very-well-made Tetris clone from its awful “arcade” website. The move comes shortly after The Tetris Company publicly criticize the clone while reminding everyone that it has a history of going after clones and knock-offs in court. It seems Trump and the rest of his goons blinked and yanked the parody game in response.
On September 4, the White House launched a new website hosting a handful of racist and nasty web games that were clearly inspired by more popular games, including a Snake clone where players collect immigrants in a long chain behind a white officer in order to remove them from the United States. All of the games played like shit, looked bad, and pushed the administration’s failing policies around tariffs and immigration.
One such game was a Tetris clone of sorts in which players built the fabled “wall” on the border between Mexico and the United States. Just a few hours after the site went live, The Tetris Company posted publicly online to clarify that it had nothing to do with the game, that it believed in connecting people, and, importantly, that it takes “copyright infringement very seriously.” You can see that on the company’s Wikipedia page, where its longest section involves its various legal battles (including some overzealous ones) against other studios and businesses. And, as spotted by VGC, seemingly due to that threat, and possibly a letter from a lawyer, the Tetris clone about building the wall is no longer on the White House arcade site.
As of the morning of September 8, Build the Wall is no longer playable on the White House’s web game portal. This appears to be one of the first real examples of a video game company hinting at a possible legal challenge against the Trump administration’s continued use of video game imagery. We’ve seen the White House use AI and video editing tools to create propaganda featuring Halo, Pokémon, Call of Duty, Animal Crossing, and more. In many of those cases, the companies publicly made it clear they weren’t involved, but didn’t threaten any legal action or even hint at the possibility.
The Tetris Company, on the other hand, said “Nah” and has seemingly won. Turns out you don’t fuck with The Tetris Company. Hopefully some other video game companies grow a spine and push back in the future.
