Over the past few months, Kotaku has been covering the Trump administration’s continued use of pop culture to spread propaganda, whether that be using Pokémon to promote ICE or Call of Duty to “celebrate” America and Israel’s joint strikes on Iran. The more this keeps happening, the more I’m starting to wonder just how newsworthy it is, as Trump and his ilk thrive on the controversy and believe themselves untouchable because that’s how fascists operate. At the rate these vile videos are being put out by whatever social media intern the Trump administration has hired, I could be writing a new story about them every other day, especially now that the White House seems to almost be antagonizing Nintendo following its tariff lawsuit. Is anyone going to stand up to this administration, or are we just going to keep seeing every video game icon, movie hero, and popular cartoon character cheering on the Trump White House for the foreseeable future?
The latest video includes footage of the Iran strikes sandwiched between videos from Nintendo’s Wii Sports mini-games, complete with the game’s theme song playing over the footage. It’s a gross, dehumanizing shitpost paid for by American taxpayers, and Nintendo’s intellectual property is all over it.
UNDEFEATED. pic.twitter.com/Jt69bcag5y
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 12, 2026
Technically, something like this could be protected under fair use, but an argument could also easily be made for trademark infringement and dilution, in that a video this reprehensible could be seen as brand-damaging to the IP it features. However, thus far most companies are either electing to ignore these videos or to just put out a statement clarifying that they weren’t involved in the making or distribution of this kind of political propaganda.
Nintendo is known for being especially litigious over far smaller offenses than using its characters and music to promote literal war crimes, though it has, at the very least, taken swings at the Trump administration for the money it lost due to the president’s tariffs which were deemed illegal by the Supreme Court in February.
It’s not like you need me to tell you that the way American politics has contorted itself to placate a government seemingly run by 12-year-old internet trolls isn’t normal, or that none of the usual systems that were supposed to keep checks and balances in place to stop a fascist regime seem to apply anymore. Everyone’s scared of a 79-year-old toddler because someone gave him a loaded gun that he’s swinging around. He gets to break laws, bypass protocols, lie, start wars, and endanger people in and outside of America on whatever destructive whims pop into his addled noggin.
Video games and other pieces of pop culture have been dragged into it because right wingers are notoriously incapable of creating anything themselves, and have to bastardize other people’s ideas so the masses will point and clap because they understood that reference. And since the rules don’t seem to actually apply and the Trump administration has a hell of a lot more resources to endure a legal battle than a guy who pirated some games does, no one’s taking any action here. At this point I don’t know if it’s cowardice, or if this idiocy has just become so normalized nobody even cares.
We’ve reached out to Nintendo for comment on this situation and will update the story if we hear back.
