The official X account for the White House has posted a new video game-themed, AI-generated meme, this time featuring elements from Bungie's Destiny 2. The meme depicts an exaggeratedly muscular Donald Trump, styled in a manner reminiscent of Duke Nukem, wielding the United States flag and the Destiny 2 weapon Gjallarhorn.
The accompanying text reads, "Eyes up, Guardians." Within the meme's character sheet, Trump is given a power level of 4700, far exceeding the in-game maximum of 550. His equipped companion is a B2 Bomber, noted for its substantial cost of "over $2 billion" per unit and its recent deployment in U.S. military actions.
This is the latest in a series of AI-generated, video game-inspired propaganda issued by the White House and its departments. In recent weeks, Homeland Security has used art in the style of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker to promote the U.S. Coast Guard, and Secretary Brooke Rollins utilized Grand Theft Auto VI imagery in a video. The Department of Labor and U.S. Customs and Border Protection have also recently featured GTA VI in their communications.
The timing of the Destiny 2 meme is particularly notable, as Bungie announced widespread layoffs on the same day. Sony executive Hermen Hulst confirmed that the reductions would impact "a significant number of employees, including most of the Destiny team and some Marathon team members." This development casts the White House's meme in a harsh light, appearing to mock hundreds of developers who have recently lost their jobs.
Alternatively, the meme may have been created before the layoff announcements, although this explanation does little to mitigate its perceived insensitivity. The intended audience for such content remains unclear, seemingly appealing only to those who engage with social media platforms in a particular manner. Regardless of intent, the incident underscores a trend of what is described as the U.S. government's "nightmarish slip into malevolent parody," particularly when contrasted with the more measured responses from game developers to the industry's ongoing workforce reductions.