It’s only the first year of Trump’s second presidency, and it’s already proven to be an exhausting and brutal one. First the Trump administration impulsively renamed the Gulf of Mexico (only in the States at least), then they began sending the National Guard to attack “terrorist Antifa holdouts” in states considered highly left-leaning.

Now, the official White House twitter account is calling immigrants alien monsters. Yes, you read that right. The White House has decided to not only call on the general public to oust immigrants and support ICE (the actual terrorist organization if we’re being brutally honest), but they’ve elected to imply immigrants are the same as the “Halo” franchise’s main villain, the Flood.

For anyone who’s not familiar, the Flood are an eldritch race of mutated cosmic spores that infect and mutate all organic life they come into contact with. Aside from the fact that the Flood has no similarities to immigrants of any kind, referring to a whole group of people as monstrous aliens that were a threat to their franchise’s galaxy is insane and beyond cruel.

On top of calling innocent people monsters, using a beloved game series about humanity uniting with other alien species to stop an ultimate evil as propaganda promoting violence against innocent people is both tone deaf and malicious. One of the core themes of “Halo” is unity, so using the series for division is beyond foolish.

Let it be known that this is shockingly similar to stage four (which is dehumanisation) of the ten stages to genocide. While the Trump administration has been on this stage since the beginning in 2016, it’s insane how far they’ve gone since then. This is beyond infuriating, it’s outright insulting.

Using “Halo” for hate is utterly disappointing, and it only paints an already controversial community in a bad light. The “Halo” community is too busy arguing on whether Master Chief’s armor is the right shade of green or if the sound design for the guns are the same decibel they were in the first game, so Trump’s AI mostly falls on blind eyes and deaf ears, fortunately.

I love “Halo”, so seeing it being used to spread hate is both tragic and maddening at the same time. What’s really concerning, however, is the White House’s willingness to paint a negative image over an entire group of people so casually.

What makes it even worse, is GameStop’s outrageous support of the White House’s incorrigible posts. Of course, it should be no surprise since earlier this year, GameStop’s CEO became the boy who cried “woke” while shutting down the French and Canadian operations due to a long-running profit downturn.

The fact that this current administration is using memes and AI to spread misinformation and hate isn’t just worrying, it’s a bad sign. While the US isn’t a fascist nation right now, it’s steadily heading in that direction. Perhaps with the next presidential election (if there is one), the democratic party will take the reins and reset the status quo (which is all they ever do).

The problem is, regardless of who wins the next election, the fact that Trump’s administration has gone this far and pretty much gotten away with it shows how far we’ve regressed as a country in the last four years. We’ve been regressing for a while before that, but these recent four years have been a massive deterioration.

“Halo” shaped a good chunk of my life, and it’s done the same for many video game fans of all ages, genders, colors, creeds, and orientations. Using such an influential franchise was no accident. I can’t help but be furious, especially since I have relatives that immigrated to the US decades ago.

A leader and their staff should never be this immature and hateful. Yet unfortunately, that’s history. Nations are led by the corrupt, and while some are walking performances like Trump, the damage they do is anything but a joke.

Video games are supposed to be fun and bring people together. Wielding a fun platform to beat down others is sick. Yet, I can’t help but be unsurprised as that’s the way it’s been for too long. What a sad state of affairs.