US President Donald Trump’s White House has unveiled a website featuring classic arcade-style games with a “MAGA” twist, allowing players to deport migrants and build a border wall.
The release has drawn swift criticism from rights groups and comes as the Trump administration intensifies its programme of arresting and deporting undocumented migrants.
One of the games, titled Rio Run, is an updated version of Snake and features a digital representation of US border czar Tom Homan chasing migrants of different skin colours along the Rio Grande near the US-Mexico border.
Another game, based on the block-stacking format of Tetris, is called Build the Wall. Its instructions tell players to “Protect the border from the coming horde,”.
A third game involves collecting nets to place into so-called “Trump accounts” — investment accounts containing a $1,000 deposit for children born between 2025 and 2028.
The White House account on X also shared a video featuring the “Make America Great Again” logo, MAGA, modelled on the logo of video game company Sega.
“CAN’T STOP WINNING. Build the wall. Deport. Fill a Trump Account,” the post says.
“This administration is laser focused on ways to innovate and tell the story of the President’s many accomplishments in a way that resonates with every American,” the White House said in a statement to AFP.
“This is an effort to further contrast between a culture of fun and winning and the dark socialist vision Democrats have for America.”
Rights groups condemned the White House’s decision to use video games to promote its immigration policies.
“Makes me sick. They’ve been playing games with people’s lives for years, now they’ve made a video game of what they’re doing,” Amerika Garcia Grewal, co-director of the Frontera Federation in Eagle Pass, Texas, told AFP.
The game designers “have lost touch with what it means to be human and care for others.”
Adriana Jasso, programme coordinator for AMIGOS San Diego Community, who works at the border, said the arcade-style games reflected a fundamental “lack of seriousness” from the administration.
“The cruelty, the extremity of the administration… is no longer surprising,” she said.
Jasso said the White House appeared determined to dehumanise and ridicule migrants, even as people die in detention centres.
“This presents the issue as if it were a game, when in fact it is not.”
Trump campaigned on a promise to deport millions of undocumented migrants and has introduced several measures since returning to office aimed at accelerating deportations and reducing illegal border crossings.
Meanwhile, the White House has a long record of using social media stunts to reinforce its messaging and provoke liberal opponents. The administration has also faced backlash from several artists over the use of their music without permission.