Donald Trump’s staff apparently loves games, especially that one where we play as that boy Zelda, so they released a self-endorsement Ocarina of Time-inspired AI slop video to accompany the release of the game’s eagerly anticipated remaster.
It’s embarrassing for many reasons. First off, it’s impossible to ignore how this is one of the first official statements coming out of the White House after the Republican Party’s heavy defeat in the midterm elections.
Then, there’s how the iconic red hat that once bravely displayed the infamous message about making America great again has been replaced by one that says “Still your President”. For the first time in a while, it feels less like a threat, more like a desperate reminder.
It’s surprisingly boring, too, just showing Trump running through a never-ending corridor in an attempt to reach the Deku tree while listing a bunch of his supposed achievements in office. And even though this was clearly meant to ride the remaster’s coattails, it doesn’t even show the new graphics, opting instead for a weird AI Trumpified version of the old ones.
It gives the ick—a relatively new expression used to describe the moment when all the attraction you feel for a prospective love interest dies immediately because of something random they do. People in politics have been talking for a while about simple actions that immediately killed a candidate’s credibility: when Nixon supposedly lost the election to Kennedy because he was sweating too profusely during a debate, when Howard Dean supposedly lost his bid for the White House because he let out a silly-sounding scream during a celebration, or when Hillary Clinton told us all to Pokémon Go to the polls. I don’t know about all the previous ones, but I remember feeling right there and then that Hillary was toast.
And I just can’t help but feel like Trump pulling this after such a massive defeat feels like his own “Pokémon Go to the polls” moment, or, should I say, his “Ocarina of Time” to go to the polls. I know it’s actually too late for that, but doesn’t that make it even more on-brand?
