WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump's White House on Sept 3 unveiled a website featuring classic arcade games – but with a "MAGA" twist, in which players can deport migrants and build a border wall.
Rights groups swiftly criticised the release of the online games, which comes as the Trump administration steps up its mass arrest and deportation program for undocumented migrants.
One game called Rio Run – an updated version of the game Snake – features a digital version of US border czar Tom Homan chasing migrants with different skin colours next to the Rio Grande river on the Mexican border.
Another game based on the block-stacking game Tetris is called Build the Wall. "Protect the border from the coming horde," the instructions say.
A third involves collecting nets to put in so-called "Trump accounts" – investment accounts containing a US$1,000 (RM4,043) deposit for children born in 2025 through 2028.
The White House account on X posted a video with the "Make America Great Again" logo MAGA, based on the logo of video game maker Sega.
"CAN'T STOP WINNING. Build the wall. Deport. Fill a Trump Account," it 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 criticised the White House for the gaming website.
"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, program coordinator for AMIGOS San Diego Community, who works at the border, said the arcade-style games showed a fundamental "lack of seriousness" from the administration.
"The cruelty, the extremity of the administration... is no longer surprising," she said.
The White House seems intent on dehumanising and ridiculing migrants, even as people die in detention centres, she said.
"This presents the issue as if it were a game, when in fact it is not."
Trump campaigned on a promise to expel millions of undocumented migrants and has taken several actions since returning to power aimed at speeding up deportations and reducing border crossings.
His White House meanwhile has long used social media stunts to ram home its points and troll liberal opponents, and has sparked a backlash from several artists by using their music without permission. – AFP
