One of five simple web games published in the White House’s “Arcade” section, “Build the Wall” aims to stop a “Zombie Border siege” attack with Tetris-like blocks. However, because the blocks do not disappear when a row is completed, the game creates an impenetrable wall against pixel zombies coming from the “Southern Border” and ends with a “Border Breached” message when the area fills up. Frontera Federation co-executive America Garcia Grewal said the game’s creators had “lost touch with what it means to be human and care about others.”
The game became available on WhiteHouse.gov and arcade.gov ahead of Labor Day weekend. The former link later began returning a 404 error; a playable version is available on the Internet Archive. The other Trump Arcade games based on Flappy Bird and Snake remained on the site.
In a statement dated 4 September 2026, The Tetris Company said it had not been involved in making the game, had not granted permission or a license for the Tetris brand or intellectual property, and was investigating the matter. The company said it supported building connections and bringing people together. The Tetris Company has previously pursued takedown requests and legal proceedings against similar games. While game rules themselves generally do not fall under copyright protection, certain visual elements can be protected under U.S. law; in 2012, a Circuit Court judge listed the playfield and the “next piece” display among those elements. Videos imitating Sega, Nintendo and Sony opening sequences were also published by the White House, while the administration’s use of Halo imagery was met with silence from Microsoft.
Why it matters
At the center of the dispute is not merely the content of a web game, but how the boundaries of intellectual property should be drawn when a well-known game format is used for political communication. Although game rules generally fall outside copyright protection, the fact that visual elements such as the playfield and the section displaying the next piece may be protected makes the assessment of similarity dependent on details. The Tetris Company’s previous takedown requests and legal proceedings against similar uses show that this review may not remain at the level of explanation alone. The use of visual elements and formats belonging to different entertainment brands on the White House’s gaming platform also leaves open the question of how the boundaries of commercial intellectual property should be observed on a public communication channel.
Background
White is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 2 news articles mentioning this name in the past 90 days; the most recent is dated 5 September 2026.