Four other White House arcade games remain, including border-themed ‘Rio Run’
The White House has removed a Tetris-style arcade game called “Build The Wall” from its website, days after The Tetris Company publicly objected to the game’s use of its likeness. The takedown came after the company posted on X on September 4 that it was “not involved in the creation” of the game and that it treated copyright infringement “very seriously.” The White House has not responded to requests for comment from the BBC and has given no official reason for the removal.
“At Tetris we believe in the power of connection and building people together, not dividing them,” the company said in its initial response to the game’s appearance on the White House site. The firm addressed its own community separately: “To our fans everywhere: we love you, we see you, and we’re grateful to have you in our community.”
The Tetris Company has previously used copyright claims to challenge games that adopt its block-building mechanic. In 2012, the company settled for an undisclosed fee with the makers of the iPhone game Mino, which it argued had appropriated the “look and feel” of the original block-builder.
“Build The Wall” was one of five arcade games posted to the White House’s mini-game section. It asked players to stack blocks to “build a wall to protect the border.” Four other games remain on the site. “Flappy Bill” is a clone of the 2013 viral hit Flappy Bird, in which players guide a bald eagle past National Mall monuments. “Rio Run” has players “patrol the line along the river” in a Snake-style format; when a player runs into the edge of the map, a counter labeled “Deported” displays how many people the player was able to catch.
The games have drawn criticism from elected officials. Connecticut Democratic state Sen. Matt Lesser posted on X: “Heating oil is near an all-time high but hey you can play Border Tsar Tom Homan in a video game.”
The arcade section is one example of how the Trump administration has increasingly woven video game imagery into its political messaging on social media. In October 2025, the official White House X account posted an AI-generated image of President Trump wearing a suit from the Halo video game series.
On March 6, the same account posted a video that combined footage of US military strikes in Iran with film and television clips, including audio of Halo’s protagonist Master Chief saying “finishing this fight.” The post drew condemnation from Steve Downes, the voice actor for Master Chief. In a since-deleted post, Downes called for “the producers of this disgusting and juvenile war porn” to remove his voice from the video.
In March, The Pokémon Company International also criticized the White House’s use of its imagery after the account included a small Pikachu in an online meme carrying the phrase “Make America Great Again.”