The backlash to the Trump administration’s use of AI Halo imagery to promote political causes – notably the use of force by ICE to detain purportedly illegal immigrants – has spread to include strongly worded responses from the original designers of the Halo game.
Jaime Griesemer, who worked as a designer at Bungie for 12 years, on all Halo games up to Halo: Reach, told Game File that: “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.”
His comments refer to an image posted by the Department of Homeland Security which showed two Spartan soldiers on a Warthog jeep, riding across a Halo ring world, underneath the words “Destroy the Flood” and a call to join ICE. The inference was clear.
Marcus Lehto, the co-creator of Halo and lead designer of Master Chief, added to Game File that: “It really makes me sick seeing Halo co-opted like this.” The DHS Flood-related image in particular was “absolutely abhorrent”, he said.
Incidentally, Lehto and Griesemer featured in a news story earlier this week responding to the Halo 1 campaign remake, voicing confusion at some of the apparent design decisions in it. And it’s this Halo remake which sparked the flurry of Halo-related AI images used by the Trump administration.
So far Microsoft – owner of the Halo IP – hasn’t noticeably said or done anything about the Trump administration’s use of Master Chief and Halo. The ongoing silence speaks volumes. It follows similar inaction by Nintendo when the Trump administration co-opted Pokémon for similar social media use. Thus emboldened, the Trump administration’s provocative use of iconic IP continues, now reaching The Lord of the Rings.
