The MAGA ideology has taken a new step in its strategy to expand among the American public, this time with its sights set on the youngest.
Far from the usual merchandising of flags, caps and t-shirts with the usual Make America Great Again, the White House makes the leap into the digital field with the publication of its own propaganda video games on its official website. Through the Arcade.gov portal, the Trump Administration has given a patriotic spin to great classics of the virtual world such as Snake or Tetris, to which it has incorporated a markedly anti-immigration theme.
The website, with a neon and retro video game aesthetic, includes five different games, each with a specific theme and inspired by the measures that the US Government has taken during Trump's second term. The first of them – and possibly the most innocent – is Flappy Bill, a game whose name refers to bills and which is a copy of the famous Flappy Bird. The objective is to fly a bird through several pipes to get the highest score possible.
In the MAGA version, the bird transforms into a bald eagle that carries one of the now usual executive orders signed by Trump in the Oval Office while flying over the National Mall in Washington and avoiding the most famous monuments on the esplanade. The national bird of the United States thus carries one of the documents that have become one of the hallmarks of his second term. Specifically, the Republican has signed 277 executive orders in 19 months, one more than Obama during his eight years in the White House and 115 more than Joe Biden.
For the second installment, the White House presents Build the Wall, a copy of the famous Soviet arcade Tetris whose objective is, in addition to arranging the pieces, “to protect the border from the approaching horde.” Specifically, the southern border of the United States with Mexico must be defended, in this case, from the entry of zombies and aliens. This is a play on words with the term “alien,” which in the American immigration context can refer to both a Martian and an immigrant. Several Democratic activists have condemned the use of this term as pejorative and dehumanizing.
Anti-immigration propaganda is also reflected in the next game, Rio Run. This copy of Snake allows you to play as Tom Homan, the current director of ICE, who, instead of catching fruit as in the original version, must capture migrants trying to cross the Rio Grande, the natural border between the United States and Mexico. “Patrol the line along the river and stop everyone who crosses it,” you can read in the description before starting the game.
The fourth video game has as its central theme the food policy of Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and its objective is to allow only those “healthy” foods to pass according to the MAHA criteria (Make America Healthy Again, the department's motto). As an objective, the player must reject dyes, additives and ultra-processed products, but also seed oil, such as sunflower oil. However, it will count beef tallow as a healthy food.
This is due to Kennedy's defense of a “traditional” diet, based on the consumption of products such as raw milk or animal fat, despite the cardiovascular and bacteriological risks associated with some of these foods. As the protagonist in charge of discarding the products, an African-American boxer appears who caricatures Mike Tyson, due to the American athlete's campaign with the Department of Health during the 2026 Super Bowl to promote "real food" over processed food.
Finally, Trump supporters can also play to collect savings to fill Trump Accounts, the children's savings program promoted by the Trump Administration for American children born during his second term. The White House presented the initiative on its social networks with the SEGA logo parodied as MAGA, and with the slogan Can't stop winning, followed by references to building the wall or deporting migrants.
According to statements to The Washington Examiner, the initiative seeks to “move Trump's agenda into an interactive format” and aims to “tell the story of his achievements” in a way that connects with Americans. This is not the first time that MAGA propaganda seeks to reach out to a younger audience, since followers of the Republican Party have promoted several campaigns and products aimed at education that includes traditional American values.
An example of this is the children's guide The Kids Guide, a series of books that includes titles such as The Children's Guide to Fighting Socialism, Dismantling the Lies about the United States or Fighting Indoctrination. These guides aimed at minors often include biased and partial information, and even promote conspiracy theories.
"During the COVID-19 pandemic, many members of the Government and the media made alarming demands on the population, including the closure of churches and the imposition of the use of masks and vaccines. Many of these statements were misleading and some were completely false!", can be read in one of the installments.
