The White House social media account is no stranger to leveraging video game imagery in its messaging, and has already used the likes of Pokémon and Halo without permission – almost always resulting in the IP holders of those franchises publicly distancing themselves from the accompanying content.
The White House's latest post mixes footage from the Nintendo Wii game Wii Sports with clips of US and Israeli strikes against Iran, with the message 'Undefeated' flashing up on-screen repeatedly. As the footage runs, showing numerous strikes against targets in Iran, the game's upbeat music plays over the top.
As you can imagine, the post hasn't gone down well.
The conflict began on February 28th, with Israel and the United States launching a series of surprise airstrikes on multiple locations across Iran. The country's Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, was killed as a result. Iran has retaliated with its own strikes against Israel and US bases in the region.
America's strikes resulted in a US Tomahawk missile hitting a Primary School and resulting in the deaths of at least 175 people, mainly schoolgirls.
The war has plunged the Middle East into crisis and led to surges in oil and gas prices, so much so that President Trump has relaxed sanctions on Russian oil, a controversial move given that Russia is currently at war with Ukraine.
On the subject of Nintendo and the US government, the Japanese video game giant is currently suing the Department of the Treasury, Department of Homeland Security, and US Customs & Border Protection over the tariffs implemented in 2025 via executive order from President Donald Trump, although this has now been automatically paused.
If Nintendo comments on this, we'll be sure to update this piece.