White House Tweets Criticized

Speaking successful a Japanese parliamentary league today, Japan’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Toshimitsu Motegi, called retired the White House for utilizing Nintendo Wii Sports footage without support successful a pro-war X station past month.

In March, the authoritative White House X relationship posted a clip containing Wii Sports footage interspersed with what appears to beryllium subject footage from the U.S.’s Operation Epic Fury airstrikes connected Iran.

UNDEFEATED. pic.twitter.com/Jt69bcag5y

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 12, 2026

As reported by Japan’s Kyodo News agency, Motegi referenced the White House’s station successful the little location league connected April 17. He commented successful Japanese that, “Generally speaking, it’s inappropriate adjacent for nationalist institutions to reproduce copyrighted materials without the rightsholders’ consent.”

This is not an isolated incident. The U.S. authorities has been posting galore images and clips connected societal media that incorporate copyrighted IPs, including Nintendo’s. More recently, connected April 1, the White House X relationship posted a mash-up of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and NASA footage to observe the Artemis II mission.

🚀🌕 pic.twitter.com/p4RmUgRgww

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 1, 2026

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s societal media accounts posted Ice raid footage juxtaposed with the Pokémon anime and its taxable tune. Then, successful March, the White House X relationship jumped connected the Pokémon Pokopia screen creation trend, creating their ain mentation of the meme with the game’s rubric replaced by ‘Make America Great Again.’ The Pokémon Company spoke retired against some incidents, stating that they were made without the company’s support oregon involvement. “Our ngo is to bring the satellite together, and that ngo is not affiliated with immoderate governmental viewpoint oregon agenda,” said The Pokémon Company astatine the time.

Many others person made statements against The White House claiming that copyrighted materials oregon likenesses person been utilized without consent. This includes Yu-Gi-Oh’s authoritative relationship and Master Chief dependable histrion Steve Downes.

As pointed retired by The New York Times, Trump medication spokesperson Abigail Jackson has antecedently commented to treble down connected their societal media strategy. “Through engaging posts and banger memes, we are successfully communicating the president’s highly fashionable agenda,” Jackson said. “There’s a crushed truthful galore radical effort to transcript our benignant — our connection resonates.”

Although Nintendo has yet to contented an authoritative connection regarding the White House’s usage of its IPs, it is presently suing the U.S. authorities connected a antithetic matter, seeking a refund for Trump’s tariffs, which impacted the company’s Switch 2 motorboat plans.

Japan’s curate for overseas affairs curate is presently moving to de-escalate the U.S.-Iran struggle and reconstruct stableness successful the Strait of Hormuz, arsenic reported by The Japan Times and others.

Photo by Kazuhiro NOGI / AFP via Getty Images.

Verity Townsend is simply a Japan-based freelance writer who antecedently served arsenic editor, contributor and translator for the crippled quality tract Automaton West. She has besides written astir Japanese civilization and movies for assorted publications.