miHoYo's massively popular open-world RPG, Genshin Impact, has introduced an in-game bulletin within its latest 7.0 update that appears to satirize former U.S. President Donald Trump, specifically referencing the controversy surrounding his administration's handling of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.
The in-game narrative features Grand Duke Diomid Turzov of the Snezhnaya region, who recounts an incident where his meticulously crafted fountain was allegedly "vandals" defaced its paint. The Duke, whose speech patterns and self-aggrandizing descriptions closely mirror Trump's public persona, claims to have built the "most beautiful fountain in all of Snezhnaya." He explains that after applying a vibrant paint, which unfortunately attracted an infestation of "Tigalda" creatures, he opted for a drastic solution: pouring a large amount of bleach into the water to clean it. This, he declared, was a "historic victory."
However, the bleach damaged the paint, causing it to peel. The Grand Duke's reaction mirrored real-world responses to the Reflecting Pool incident, where he dismissed the peeling paint as "fake news" and accused "thugs from Rokot" of damaging his fountain. He vowed to hire "the biggest, toughest, strongest warriors money can buy" for its defense.
The specifics of the in-game story directly allude to the real-world controversy in 2020, when the National Park Service hired a firm to repaint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool's surface, which had become murky due to algae blooms. The project, initially estimated between $1.5 to $2 million, ultimately cost approximately $14 to $16 million. Following the repainting, the algae returned, and the new paint began to deteriorate. The Trump administration attributed the peeling to vandalism, leading to the arrest and charging of former Olympian David Hearn, a claim later dismissed by a judge who cited a "botched installation" of the paint as the cause.
This is not the first instance of Genshin Impact incorporating political satire. The game's Fontaine region includes a book titled "The Art of Negotiation," which appears to be a subtle jab at Trump's 1987 book "The Art of the Deal," featuring lines such as, "The most powerful weapon in a negotiation is the truth, and the truth can be manipulated."