In short
- The White House removed its Tetris-style mini-game “Build The Wall” after The Tetris Company said it was “not involved in the creation” of the game and took “copyright infringement very seriously”.
- The Tetris Company posted its objection from its official X account on 4 September.
- Four other arcade games, including “Flappy Bill” and “Rio Run”, remain in the mini-game section of the White House website.
- Connecticut Democratic state senator Matt Lesser criticised the games on X, writing about heating oil prices and playing “Border Tsar Tom Homan in a video game”.
- The Tetris Company settled for an undisclosed fee in 2012 with the makers of the iPhone game Mino, which it claimed copied the look and feel of the block-builder.
The White House has removed “Build The Wall”, a Tetris-style mini-game from its website, after The Tetris Company said it was not involved in the game’s creation and that it takes copyright infringement seriously. The game, which asked players to stack blocks to build a wall to protect the border, was one of five arcade games on the site.
Why was the game taken down?
The White House has not given an official reason for the removal, and it did not respond to requests for comment from the BBC. The takedown came days after the official Tetris account on X posted on 4 September that the firm was “not involved in the creation” of the game and took “copyright infringement very seriously”.
What did The Tetris Company say?
“At Tetris we believe in the power of connection and building people together, not dividing them,” The Tetris Company said in its first response to the game. It added: “To our fans everywhere: we love you, we see you, and we’re grateful to have you in our community.”
Which other games are still on the White House website?
Four other arcade games remain in the mini-game section of the White House website. “Flappy Bill” is a clone of the 2013 hit Flappy Bird in which players fly a bald eagle and dodge monuments from the National Mall. In “Rio Run”, players “patrol the line along the river”, with gameplay reminiscent of the phone game Snake; running into the edge of the map shows a “Deported” number indicating how many people the player caught.
What criticism have the games drawn?
Connecticut Democratic state senator Matt Lesser wrote on X: “Heating oil is near an all-time high but hey you can play Border Tsar Tom Homan in a video game”. The arcade section is one of several ways the Trump administration has incorporated video game culture into its political messaging on social media.
How else has the White House used video game imagery?
In October 2025, the official White House X account drew criticism for posting an AI-generated picture of President Trump in a suit from the video game Halo, the kind of synthetic image that regulators are beginning to address, including the 44 rules for AI in the NHS set out by the UK medicines watchdog.
On 6 March, the account posted a video that mixed footage of US military strikes in Iran with film and TV clips, including Halo protagonist Master Chief saying “finishing this fight”. The Master Chief voice actor, Steve Downes, condemned the post in a now-deleted tweet and called for “the producers of this disgusting and juvenile war porn” to remove his voice from the video.
The Pokémon Company International also criticised the White House’s use of its imagery in March, when a meme posted online included a tiny version of the character Pikachu alongside the phrase “Make America Great Again”.
Has The Tetris Company taken legal action over copyright before?
The Tetris Company has previously sued firms for infringing its copyright, settling for an undisclosed fee in 2012 with the makers of the iPhone game Mino, which it claimed copied the look and feel of the block-builder.
Frequently asked questions
Why did the White House remove the ‘Build The Wall’ game?
The White House has not given an official reason. The removal followed a post on 4 September from The Tetris Company’s official X account saying it was not involved in creating the game and took copyright infringement very seriously.
Which arcade games are still on the White House website?
Four arcade games remain in the site’s mini-game section, including “Flappy Bill”, a Flappy Bird-style game featuring a bald eagle, and “Rio Run”, which displays a “Deported” count when players hit the edge of the map.
Has The Tetris Company sued over copyright before?
Yes. The Tetris Company settled for an undisclosed fee in 2012 with the makers of the iPhone game Mino, which it claimed copied the look and feel of its block-building game.
With reporting from BBC News.
Stock image, not from the events described. Great presidential puzzle2 — Mayer, Merkel, & Ottmann: lithographersJames Albert Wales: artist / Wikimedia Commons (Public domain)