Trump’s weird HALO memeing, “dogshit bullshit,” and a small fascist man named Cow

Donald Trump’s weird use of HALO memes has gone down predictably well with the players and developers. The US president and White House have been posting images of Trump as the game’s Master Chief character in order to recruit.

Recruit for what you ask?

Well, Immigration and Customs Control (ICE) staff for the militarised personal militia Trump has been pouring a fortune into. Tech firm Gamestop seem to be into the idea, as The Verge reports, so frankly they can fuck off too.

Microsoft, who make the game, haven’t said anything yet. Which is a piss-weak position, but what can you expect from capitalist filth?

Exactly.

They also keep referencing ‘The Flood’, which is the name of the alien invasion in the game. You can see where this is going. That sort of thing obviously appeals to small, little, silly fascists – more about those later.

Here’s one of the memes anyway. You can tell it’s not very accurate because his hair looks attached:

Here’s another one. Pretty weird as you can see:

But what is the thinking behind it? Well, a White House press officer (and professional tool) said:

Yet another war ended under President Trump’s watch – only one leader is fully committed to giving power to the players, and that leader is Donald J Trump.

That’s why he’s hugely popular with the American people and American gamers.

The inference seems to be that ICE is some sort of knightly space force and immigrants are evil aliens – The Flood. Which is obviously A) fucking stupid and B) fucking fascist.

It’s also been slammed by gamers and various parties in the gaming industry.

Fascistic bullshit, it seems

NME rounded up various comments by angry fans on Reddit. One said:

Dehumanising entire groups is literally a major component of fascism. This administration is doing everything it can to create ‘non desirables’. It’s actually fucking gross and insane that the VERY militant and fascist government of earth in Halo is less extreme in its propaganda of ‘aliens’ than the real US government at the moment.

Another said described it as fascist ideology:

It’s abhorrent that Microsoft allows this.

While a third said:

Don’t use the game I grew up on to advance your dogshit political bullshit.

Dogshit bullshit, needless to say, wins wordplay of the week.

Weird mutant guy Bannon speaks

As the Guardian point out, former Trump strategist, Steve Bannon, and Trump himself have been leaning in to gamer culture for a long time. Bannon seemed to imagine gamers as fertile ground for his nefarious plots:

These guys, these rootless white males, had monster power.

You can activate that army. They come in through Gamergate or whatever and then get turned on to politics and Trump.

Shit, maybe it’s true there have to be some gamers who get into far-right politics. But given the comments above, it’s hardly an undifferentiated mass. Maybe some people just like games? Or maybe games can make gamers have other kinds of politics?

By the way, Bannon was jailed in 2024 for the crime of being full of shit. Actually that’s just a little joke. It was for “two counts of contempt of Congress in 2022 for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to a January 6 Capitol riot investigation”.

Some HALO developers also think Trump and Co should fuck the fuck off with their dogshit bullshit. Here’s one who spoke to Eurogamer:

Using Halo imagery in a call to ‘destroy’ people because of their immigration status goes way too far, and ought to offend every Halo fan, regardless of political orientation. I personally find it despicable. The Flood are evil space zombie parasites and are not an allegory to any group of people.

Another, who actually designed the Master Chief character said:

It really makes me sick seeing Halo co-opted like this.

And it is pretty sick. Who would have guessed big tech would get on board with this kind of thing?

ICE to be led by a man called Greg Cow, wtf?

In related news, as we reported just a few days ago, ICE aren’t even good at being fascists. Which is literally their only job, the huge fucking babies. Basically, they aren’t hitting their deportation targets so their leadership is being purged and replaced by Border Control figures.

One of the people taking over is this completely normal-seeming guy (he’s the one on the left):

He’s also very small, like most fascists. Or maybe Tom Homan (what?) is a fucking giant. Anyway:

There’s something else here too. I ran Greg Bovino’s surname through Google Translate because it sounds interesting and it basically means ‘cow’.

Investigamative Jernalizm at it’s finest: ICE will be led by a tiny angry fascist man who likes Gestapo coats and whose name is Greg Cow. Yes, Greg Cow. GREG, COW.

Yup, completely serious people who should be treated with the respect they deserve. Which is none. No respect at all. Zero.

Featured image via the Canary

By Joe Glenton

This post was originally published on Canary.