Trump Administration takes down Tetris clone

Bryant Francis,Senior Editor,GameDeveloper.com

September 9, 2026

3 Min ReadImage by Jakub Rupa via Adobe Stock.

The Trump administration's promise to promote its domestic and foreign policy agendas using video game iconography seems to have hit hit an (L-shaped) speed bump. On September 4, 2026, the White House added a new "Arcade" section to its website with five browser games themed around different policy pushes, each mechanically similar to existing games like Snake, Flappy Bird, and Tetris.

Now news outlet VGC has spotted that one of those games, a Tetris clone called Build the Wall, has already been taken down. The game in question was themed around President Trump's decade-long push for a physical border wall along the US' southern border that would forcibly block undocumented immigration.

"At Tetris we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them," the company stated. "To our fans everywhere: we love you, we see you, and we're grateful to have you in our community."

It was in the comments of this post—also dated on September 4—that the company directly commented on Build the Wall. "P.S. The Tetris Company was not involved in the creation of Build the Wall," it continued. "P.P.S. We take copyright infringement very seriously." The Tetris Company is the first video game industry company to directly criticize the Trump administration's use of its intellectual property in its propaganda—and see its iconography removed in the days after.

Previous social media posts featuring iconography from games like Pokémon or Halo were met with either pointed distancing or silence by their property owners. The administration has faced sharper criticism by artists and companies in other mediums, with musicians like Taylor Swift and Bad Bunny successfully pressing for their songs to be removed from posts promoting its deportation agenda.

It's unknown at this time if The Tetris Company's post—or any follow-up messages to the White House by the Tetris Company—were what prompted the game's removal. A Tetris spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by Game Developer.

Build the Wall and Snake clone Rio Run were criticized as promoting racist depictions of undocumented immigrants from Central and South America. In Rio Run, players maneuver an anonymous government official across a board, gathering non-white characters that are placed in orange jumpsuits that become the "tail" of the digital snake.

Meanwhile Build the Wall modified Tetris' core mechanics by adding alien invaders that attempt to breach the assembled falling blocks. These otherworldly enemies are linked to the Trump administration's aggressive—often violent—deportation campaign by way of the term "alien," which the Immigration and Nationality Act defines as "any person not a citizen or national of the United States." The administration regularly refers to undocumented immigrants as "illegal aliens."

Ironically it may have been Build the Wall's own design logic that undermined its intended message. As Kotaku observed before the game was taken down, Build the Wall removed the typical Tetris mechanic of having the falling blocks vanish when assembled in a perfect straight line, but still flashes a "game over" screen after the bricks reach the top of the screen.

In other words, no matter how high players built the wall, it was impossible to win.

Top Stories

About the Author

Bryant Francis

Senior Editor, GameDeveloper.com

Bryant Francis is a writer, journalist, and narrative designer based in Boston, MA. He currently writes for Game Developer, a leading B2B publication for the video game industry. His credits include Proxy Studios' 4X strategy game Zephon, Iron Anchor Studios' Down With The Ship, and Amplitude Studio's 2017 game Endless Space 2.

See more from Bryant Francis