White House Super Mario post leaves people perplexed

The White House's social media accounts have been posting some seriously weird AI-generated content in recent months, but a new video has still left people perplexed. Donald Trump's government chose to mark the launch of NASA's historic Artemis II moon mission by comparing it to certain Japanese game developer's super hero Italian plumber.

It appears that The White House is under the illusion that NASA's 10-day flyby journey around the moon is of an equal level of importance to yesterday's release of the Super Mario Galaxy Movie. Any Nintendo fan will tell you that's clearly ridiculous. Mario's galactic battle against Bowser Jr makes NASA's mission look like a walk in the park.

The video posted on X shows a montage of AI-generated footage of Super Mario going into space combined with images of NASA astronauts and the US flag on the moon. It's not entirely clear if the White House intended it to be a celebration of US space exploration or a mockery of it – or if the person running the account simply couldn't concentrate on work because they wanted to knock off and get to the cinema.

Even supporters of the government appear to be surprised. Some wonder how the White House could put a US space mission on the same level as a Nintendo movie, while some are questioning the choice of a Japanese IP over a more patriotic character (Superman, one person suggests. Or maybe Homer Simpson?). Others are placing bets on how long it will take for Nintendo's lawyers to intervene.

“Are you serious? Mario Bros combined with the launch? What's the narrative? Are they laughing in our faces?,” one person asks. “Very American of your White House intern,” another person replied to the post. “I feel mocked as an American,” someone else complained.

“So we can mock and ridicule this tax waste, cool,” another person wrote.

One person did comment “This movie and game were absolutely amazing!”, so that's good. Maybe the White House should just start posting movie trailers? In the past week, we've had the new Supergirl trailer and the DreamWorks Forgotten Island trailer.

The White House social media accounts seem to be out to bait Nintendo. A few days ago, the X account posted 'MAKE AMERICAN FARMING GREAT AGAIN' accompanied by an AI-generated rip off of Animal Crossing.

Pokémon Company International has previously condemned the US government's use of its imagery and trademarks, including the use of Pikachu in memes and the use of Pokémon imagery, music and 'Gotta catch 'em all' slogan on a video of immigration arrests posted by the Homeland Security X account.

Of concern for Nintendo will be the potential harm to its reputation. Some people appear not to realise that the White House is making the posts without the game developer's permission, which is causing some fans to threaten to boycott the company.