Four days after the United States joined Israel in airstrikes against Iran that have killed hundreds, the official White House Twitter account posted a video that features a killstreak animation from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. This is the latest example of President Donald Trump and his administration using gamer memes and culture in official government-produced and promoted videos.
On March 4, the official White House Twitter account posted a roughly one-minute-long video featuring numerous clips of real military strikes against different Iranian locations and targets. At the very start of the video is a clip from 2023’s Modern Warfare III that shows a player activating an MGB killstreak. This is a hidden killstreak for players who get 30 kills without dying. Once called, the bomb ends the match. The official video was posted with the caption: “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue.”
Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue. pic.twitter.com/kTO0DZ56IJ
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 4, 2026
Kotaku has contacted the White House and Call of Duty publisher Activision, as well as its parent company, Xbox, about the official video, but didn’t hear back before publication.
The White House video featuring a CoD killstreak animation in this context is particularly heinous, as the ongoing strikes against Iran have killed hundreds of civilians, including many children who died on the first day of the strikes after a missile hit Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ elementary school in Iran on February 28. Neither the United States nor Israel has taken responsibility for the attack.
“All that I know is that we’re investigating that,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio. “Of course, we never target civilians, but we’re taking a look at investigating that.”
Donald Trump’s terrible history of using gamer memes
This isn’t the first time Trump and his administration have used video games in official government content. In September 2025, the Department of Homeland Security posted a video showing various armed ICE and Border Patrol thugs arresting and detaining people with music from Pokémon in the background. The very next month, DHS posted an image from Halo featuring the Master Chief driving a Warthog with the captions: “Finishing the fight” and “Destroy the Flood,” likening immigrants to the parasitic aliens of the sci-fi franchise.
That same month, the White House Twitter account posted an AI-generated image of Trump—who is currently dealing with a big, gross red rash—wearing the Master Chief’s famous green armored suit.
“DHS will reach people where they are with content they can relate to and understand, whether that be Halo, Pokémon, Lord of the Rings, or any other medium,” a DHS spokesperson told former Kotaku editor Alyssa Mercante in October 2025. “DHS remains laser focused on bringing awareness to the flood of crime that criminal illegal aliens have inflicted on our country. We aren’t slowing down.”
In an interview with Game File, Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto called the post “absolutely abhorrent” and added, “It really makes me sick seeing Halo co-opted like this.”
