White House Sparks Controversy with AI-Generated Halo Imagery for Political Promotion

Will Microsoft be able to stop the White House using AI-generated Halo imagery to depict Trump as Master Chief and to promote and recruit for ICE? Depressingly, I doubt it

The US government's use of AI-generated Halo imagery on social media has absolutely been a power-play to appeal to like-minded American gamers. As if there were any doubt, White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai told journalist Alyssa Mercante overnight: "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." Desai's comments were made in relation to an image tweeted by the Department of Homeland Security, which showed a picture of a Halo ring world and two spartan soldiers in a Warthog jeep - one driving it and the other on top of it, operating the machine-gun turret. The soldiers appear below the words "Destroy the Flood" and a call to join the Immigration Customs Enforcement group, ICE. The Flood are the primary antagonists in the Halo franchise - a parasitic lifeform which overran the galaxy. The reference here in the ICE promotional image, then, is depressingly clear: the Flood represents the immigrants ICE seeks to forcefully detain. The US government's use of AI-generated Halo imagery started at the weekend, after Microsoft announced a remake of the Halo: Combat Evolved campaign will be coming to PC, Xbox and - for the first time - PlayStation. In response, US games retailer GameStop posted a memey statement declaring the console wars dead - the inference being that now Halo, the series that epitomised the rivalry between Xbox and PlayStation, was heading to Sony's machine, the console wars were effectively over. The White House X account responded to this with an AI-generated image of Donald Trump as Master Chief, holding a blue energy sword and saluting in front of an American flag, which doesn't have the correct amount of state-stars on it. "Power to the Players," the tweet read. GameStop replied with another AI-generated Halo image showing Trump's face in Master Chief's helmet, and holographic AI companion Cortana as Vice President JD Vance nearby. GameStop hasn't tweeted since. All eyes now are on Microsoft and whether it will do anything about the unsanctioned use of AI-generated Halo imagery to promote political causes such as this. Microsoft has not commented on the matter and I expect never will, though I've asked through official channels all the same. However, we can find depressing precedent in the recent lack of action (or effect) by Nintendo's legal team to do anything about the US Department of Homeland Security using imagery and music from Pokémon to promote ICE causes. The Pokémon Company even publicly confirmed it had not sanctioned the use of Pokémon assets in this way, further underlining its apparent powerlessness to change the situation. That, then, is what I expect this latest Halo-related display is: another power-play. Another demonstration that as unsanctioned and abhorrent as the use of the Halo imagery is, and enormously powerful as Microsoft is, it probably won't be able to force the US government to take it down.

Microsoft Remains Quiet After Trump AI Master Chief Image and Homeland Security Uses Halo to Promote ICE - IGN

Microsoft has chosen to remain silent after Donald Trump released an AI image of the U.S. president as Master Chief and the Department of Homeland Security used Halo to promote ICE on social media. Yesterday, IGN reported on how the White House had waded into the console wars with an AI image of Donald Trump saluting as Master Chief in front of an American flag with only 40 stars. It followed Microsoft's announcement of Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the campaign of 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved, which is due out on Xbox Series X and S, PC, and PlayStation 5 at some point in 2026. It is the first Halo game ever to launch on a PlayStation console, and cements Microsoft's position as a multiplatform video game developer. The U.S. administration then doubled down on the Halo AI images, with the Department of Homeland Security using Halo to promote the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's website (ICE). The social media posts have sparked a vociferous response from Halo fans, which led to the Halo subreddit changing its enforcement rules. Mods usually remove any posts containing "politics and AI slop," but such was the desire to discuss the tweets, they made an exception. Microsoft, however, has so far remained silent on the issue. The company is yet to issue IGN a statement, but a representative told PC Gamer that "Microsoft does not have anything to share on this matter." This is in contrast to The Pokémon Company's position. It formally responded to the use of Pokémon TV hero Ash Ketchum and the series' theme tune by the Department of Homeland Security as part of a video showing people being arrested and handcuffed by law enforcement agents. "We are aware of a recent video posted by the Department of Homeland Security that includes imagery and language associated with our brand," The Pokémon Company International said in a statement shared with IGN. "Our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property." The question is, can Microsoft do anything about Trump and his administration using Halo for promotion? Many fans had suggested The Pokémon Company should defend its intellectual property by launching legal action. But the corporation's former legal chief told IGN at the time that he "wouldn't touch this." "I don't see them doing anything about this for a few reasons," McGowan, now principal at Extreme Grownup Services, told IGN. "First, think of how little you see [The Pokémon Company International]'s name in the press. They are INSANELY publicity-shy and prefer to let the brand be the brand. "Second, many of their execs in the USA are on green cards," he continued. "Even if I was still at the company I wouldn't touch this, and I'm the most trigger-happy CLO [Chief Legal Officer] I've ever met. This will blow over in a couple of days and they'll be happy to let it." The Trump administration has form when it comes to using AI images to promote the President. In May, Trump sparked a backlash from some Catholics after posting an AI-generated image of himself as the Pope. The picture, which was shared by official White House social media accounts, was released as Catholics mourned the death of Pope Francis and prepared to choose the next pontiff. The White House has also released AI images of Trump as Superman and as a Star Wars Jedi. And when the Department of Homeland Security used South Park to promote ICE, South Park trolled Trump in response, saying: "wait, so we ARE relevant?" Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images.