Trump’s Sick Campaign to Gamify Violence Grace Segers & Tori Otten The New Republic: 16 Feb 2026 Gaming appeals to the gamers, those angry, lonely, isolated young men living in their parents’ basement. In other words, easy prey for cannon fodder in the American war machine This perspective is frequently encouraged by the administration. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has given his missions names such as “Midnight Hammer” and “Southern Spear,” phrases that sound more like weapons in a game than actual military operations. (Hegseth also has a tattoo that reads “Deus Vult,” a slogan adopted by the far right that was popularized by the grand strategy computer game Crusader Kings II.) And Trump, of course, continues to enthusiastically describe military strikes with the use of sound effects, as if he were watching an action flick rather than bombs dropping on human beings. Characterizing military or law enforcement service as a video game–style activity can be an effective way to attract young men. Historically, recruitment efforts by the military have been intertwined with video game culture, encouraging this perspective—from the Army releasing its own hugely popular video game in the early 2000s to its use of esports to reach young Americans and encourage them to join up. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has enthusiastically adopted the strategy of explicitly appealing to gamers through distinct visuals and coded language. One recruitment poster shared by ICE on its Instagram account last year harkened to the video game series Halo, encouraging potential recruits to “destroy the flood.” In the Halo series, the “flood” is a parasitic alien life form and one of the primary villains of the franchise—the administration is thus comparing undocumented immigrants to an existential threat to society that must be eradicated. “It is easier to be able to dehumanize an immigrant, if you’re an ICE agent, if you view it as, ‘It’s just a game,’” Massanari said. If a man in a position of authority sees himself more as a protagonist in a first-person shooter game than someone working toward the collective good, that distance between him and his community only widens.
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