--- title: White House Removes ‘Build the Wall’ Game After Tetris Rebuke description: The arcade game launched last week has disappeared from the White House site after the Tetris Company criticized it and said it takes “copyright infringement very seriously.” canonical: https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/tetris-company-build-the-wall-video-game-trump-white-house/ author: Miranda Jeyaretnam article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2026-09-09T07:30:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-09-09T07:30:04.265Z article:section: Politics og:title: White House Removes ‘Build the Wall’ Game After Tetris Rebuke og:description: The arcade game launched last week has disappeared from the White House site after the Tetris Company criticized it and said it takes “copyright infringement very seriously.” og:url: https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/tetris-company-build-the-wall-video-game-trump-white-house/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt954d1c25577852ab/6aa1074cacc92b7e745b58ae/build_the_wall_game_(1).png?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: build the wall game (1).png og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: White House Removes ‘Build the Wall’ Game After Tetris Rebuke twitter:description: The arcade game launched last week has disappeared from the White House site after the Tetris Company criticized it and said it takes “copyright infringement very seriously.” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt954d1c25577852ab/6aa1074cacc92b7e745b58ae/build_the_wall_game_(1).png?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # White House Removes ‘Build the Wall’ Game After Tetris Rebuke > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Miranda Jeyaretnam](https://time.com/author/miranda-jeyaretnam/)  ## Miranda Jeyaretnam Reporter Sep 9, 2026 7:30 AM UTC  A screenshot of the since-removed "Build the Wall" game on the White House site. A screenshot of the since-removed "Build the Wall" game on the White House site. WhiteHouse.gov / Screenshot by TIME  by [Miranda Jeyaretnam](https://time.com/author/miranda-jeyaretnam/)  ## Miranda Jeyaretnam Reporter Sep 9, 2026 7:30 AM UTC The White House has apparently pulled one of its [newly released arcade-style video games](https://time.com/article/2026/09/04/white-house-arcade-trump-agenda-immigration/) after a rebuke from the maker of Tetris. The White House game, called “Build the Wall,” was launched last week alongside a series of other games as part of the latest push by the Trump Administration to [promote its policies through popular culture](https://time.com/7338216/trump-white-house-social-media-music-artists-copyright-sabrina-carpenter/). In the game, players could stack blocks to form a wall to “protect the border from the coming horde,” in the style of the iconic, decades-old stacker game Tetris. But on Tuesday, the game was no longer available on the [White House website](https://www.whitehouse.gov/arcade/). The apparent removal of the game comes after the Tetris Company clarified that it was not involved in the creation of and was opposed to the politics behind the White House game. “At Tetris, we believe in the power of connection and bringing people together, not dividing them,” the company wrote in a [statement](https://x.com/Tetris%5FOfficial/status/2095933372019216384) on social media on Friday. “P.P.S. We take copyright infringement very seriously,” it added in the post. TIME has reached out to the White House and Tetris for comment. ## Latest company to criticize White House digital strategy The Tetris Company has become the latest company to distance itself from the Trump Administration’s use of copyrighted material to promote its agenda, and it took its criticism a step further by alluding to possible legal action. In March, the Pokémon Company [said it had not authorized](https://time.com/7382839/pokemon-dhs-white-house-trump-social-media-memes-ice/) the White House’s use of imagery from the game Pokémon Pokopia. Months earlier, the Pokémon Company had objected to a [Department of Homeland Security video](https://x.com/DHSgov/status/1970251208322621530) that used Pokémon branding and footage to promote Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Several songs by pop star [Taylor Swift](https://time.com/6342806/person-of-the-year-2023-taylor-swift/) were also removed from Trump campaign and White House social media posts, and other celebrities like [Olivia Rodrigo](https://time.com/6050587/olivia-rodrigo-sour/) and [Sabrina Carpenter](https://time.com/7027418/sabrina-carpenter-interview-time-100-next/) have [publicly condemned](https://time.com/7338216/trump-white-house-social-media-music-artists-copyright-sabrina-carpenter/) the Administration’s use of their music. The other White House games launched last week also borrowed mechanics associated with iconic games like Snake and Flappy Bird. Promotional clips posted by the White House mimicked branding associated with Sega and Microsoft’s Xbox. In one clip, gamemaker Sega’s familiar start-up logo morphs into “MAGA,” the abbreviation for President Donald Trump’s slogan, “Make America Great Again.” Those companies have not publicly commented. “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 TIME last week. “This is an effort to further contrast between a culture of fun and winning and the dark socialist vision Democrats have for America.” The games drew criticism from Democratic lawmakers. On Friday, Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D, Texas) [posted](https://x.com/RepJasmine/status/2095993527352099169), “Instead of creating policies that actually help people, the White House just rolled out arcade games. They need to spend less time playing and more time governing. Folks need affordable groceries, not games.” Rep. Ted Lieu (D, Calif.) and Connecticut state senator Matt Lesser, also a Democrat, levied similar criticisms, arguing that the White House had misplaced priorities amid [high fuel prices](https://time.com/article/2026/06/19/us-iran-deal-strait-hormuz-shipping-oil-gas-prices/) and [inflation](https://time.com/article/2026/05/13/inflation-gas-prices-food-tariffs-trump/) driven by the [U.S.’s war against Iran](https://time.com/article/2026/09/08/iran-us-war-strait-of-hormuz-gulf-targets/). The game’s title reprises Trump’s signature 2016 campaign pledge to build a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border and bill the construction to Mexico. A decade later, American taxpayers are still funding the effort, and [hundreds of miles remain unfinished](https://time.com/article/2026/08/06/trump-border-wall-immigration/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/tetris-company-build-the-wall-video-game-trump-white-house/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/tetris-company-build-the-wall-video-game-trump-white-house/"},"headline":"White House Removes ‘Build the Wall’ Game After Tetris Rebuke","datePublished":"2026-09-09T07:30:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-09-09T07:30:04.265Z","description":"The arcade game launched last week has disappeared from the White House site after the Tetris Company criticized it and said it takes “copyright infringement very seriously.”","url":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/tetris-company-build-the-wall-video-game-trump-white-house/","keywords":["White House","Video Games","News Desk","overnight"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt954d1c25577852ab/6aa1074cacc92b7e745b58ae/build_the_wall_game_(1).png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Miranda Jeyaretnam","jobTitle":"Reporter","url":"https://time.com/author/miranda-jeyaretnam/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt954d1c25577852ab/6aa1074cacc92b7e745b58ae/build_the_wall_game_(1).png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"build the wall game (1).png","caption":"","creditText":"WhiteHouse.gov / Screenshot by TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/white-house/","name":"White House"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/article/2026/09/09/tetris-company-build-the-wall-video-game-trump-white-house/","name":"White House Removes ‘Build the Wall’ Game After Tetris Rebuke"}}]}] ```