The United States Trump Administration has officially taken credit for ending the console wars in an email to press. Following the spew of AI generated images depicting President Donald Trump as Halo’s Master Chief, White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai has claimed the battle between Xbox and PlayStation is “yet another war ended under President Trump”.
The aforementioned artificially generated propaganda images were shared online earlier this week following the reveal of Halo: Campaign Evolved, an Unreal Engine 5 remake of the first Halo game releasing on Xbox Series, PC and PlayStation 5.
Firstly, the official White House Twitter account posted an image of President Donald Trump as Halo Infinite’s incarnation of Master Chief saluting with an energy sword outside the White House next to an American Flag with the wrong number of stars.
Afterwards, the official Homeland Security Twitter account posted a Halo: Combat Evolved screenshot with the caption: “Destroy the Flood”. The post also included a link to the ICE website, comparing immigrants to the galaxy-destroying parasites of the video game series where humanity and aliens alike team up to defeat the enemy.
In an email to games journalist Alyssa Mercante, the White House press office, the Trump Administration took credit for ending the console war. In the email, White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai claimed that Trump’s presidency is “giving power to the players”, despite the frequent rise in game console prices due to the Administration’s tariffs.
“Yet another war ended under President Trump’s watch—only one leader is fully committed to giving power to the players, and that leader is Donald J. Trump,” the email reads. “That’s why he’s hugely popular with the American people and American Gamers.” The email ends with the signature: “Sent from my iPhone”.
At the time of writing, Microsoft has not responded to the use of its intellectual property in online propaganda. Recently, the Trump Administration’s propaganda run has made use of numerous gaming IPs without permission, including a Homeland Security video of ICE agents rounding up civilians to the theme song of Pokemon alongside the caption “Gotta Catch ‘Em All”.
In a statement The Pokemon Company explained it “was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property.” However, the video is still available to view at the time of writing.
Outside of the games industry, President Trump also used Kenny Loggins’ iconic Danger Zone atop an AI-generated video of himself dropping feces onto No Kings Protesters from a fighter jet. While major corporations are doing nothing to remove their IPs from the Trump Administration’s propaganda, Loggins filed a formal DMCA against the video for using his iconic song.
“This is an unauthorized use of my performance of ‘Danger Zone.’ Nobody asked me for my permission, which I would have denied, and I request that my recording on this video is removed immediately,” the musician said in a statement.
“I can’t imagine why anybody would want their music used or associated with something created with the sole purpose of dividing us,” he continued. “Too many people are trying to tear us apart, and we need to find new ways to come together. We’re all Americans, and we’re all patriotic. There is no ‘us and them’ – that’s not who we are, nor is it what we should be. It’s all of us. We’re in this together, and it is my hope that we can embrace music as a way of celebrating and uniting each and every one of us.”
