White House uses Zelda imagery in political post, despite previous condemnation from Pokémon Company

The White House has shared another post using imagery from a video game. This time, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is the target.

The post comes in the form of a video, showing a Trump-like character running around in Ocarina of Time. It uses actual music from the game and clearly rips off the visuals from the original Nintendo 64 release.

This is despite the Trump administration frequently coming under fire for using video game imagery in this way.

Previously, figures from the Halo series called out the White House for using imagery from their games, and The Pokémon Company officially disavowed a political ad that featured the phrase “Gotta catch ’em all” and a meme featuring Pikachu.

The video rehashes Trump’s anti migrant views after a Republican defeat in the US midterms this week. It also attempts to showcase some of his purported accomplishments during his second term as president.

Incidentally, Halo composer Marty O’Donnell ran in the midterms on the Republican ticket, but lost his seat to the Democratic incumbent.

The Trump administration has largely been dismissive of companies and individuals who object to their work being used in political posts, memes, and ads. A major exception to this is when the White House did relent and take down a Tetris clone from its website, after the official Tetris X account distanced itself from the game and its messaging. Tetris’ statement also made clear that it would enforce its copyright.

However, the administration has not ceased using imagery from video games in its – often AI-generated – posts. It has also previously indicated that it has no intention of slowing down.

“We will reach people where they are with content they can relate to and understand, whether that be Halo, Pokémon, Lord of the Rings or any other medium,” a representative of the Department of Homeland Security told journalist Alyssa Mercante last year.

It remains to be seen if Nintendo disavows this Ocarina of Time post, as The Pokémon Company has done previously.