The anonymous artists responsible for satirical art installations aimed at the Trump administration on the National Mall — including a golden “throne” toilet and statuesof President Donald Trump with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein — struck again Monday morning.
This time, the group targeted the war with Iran with a playable video game titled “Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell.”
The installation at the D.C. War Memorial (just south of the recently painted Reflecting Pool but off the most popular stretch of the Mall) consists of three free, functional arcade cabinets. The name comes from “Operation Epic Fury,” the campaign the United States launched in February to, according to the Defense Department, destroy Iran’s offensive missiles, missile production, navy and other infrastructure. As of the day the work was installed on the Mall, the two nations had reached a shakyceasefire.
On the exterior wrapping of the machines are Trump’s Truth Social posts about the war, explosions and cartoons of administration officials, including a much-meme-d Vice President JD Vance with an artificially widened face. There’s also a plaque on the floor of the monument with the game’s name and an explanation.
“Introducing … a high-octane, flag-waving, boots-on-the-ground simulator where freedom isn’t debated, it’s deployed,” it reads. “No briefings, no hesitation, just pure pixelated patriotism. Strap in and play hard, because this game may never end.”
According to the artists, the installation is meant to criticize U.S. involvement in the war using a medium the administration itself has used to promote its military activities: video games. The White House posted videos on X blending real-world bombing footage with clips from action movies and video games such as “Call of Duty” and “Halo.”
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The guerrilla art group Secret Handshake is responsible for about a dozen works over the past year and a half that have criticized Trump and his followers. In March, the art collective installed an oversize toilet, spray-painted gold and rested on a faux marble pedestal, in front of the Lincoln Memorial to protest the president’s renovations to the Lincoln bathroom. Other installations relate to Trump’s long-standing friendship with Epstein. (The two had a falling-out in the mid-2000s, and Trump has not been accused of participating in Epstein’s criminal conduct.)
The people behind the group, whose identities are unknown to The Washington Post, use a go-between to obtain permits for the installations from the National Park Service.
In the game, which has the conventions of a 16-bit Japanese role-playing game and is also available online, a pixelated Trump is depicted as initiating the war with Iran, collecting barrels of oil and fighting those who oppose his military campaign. Players can help the president find a Big Mac or order a Diet Coke. Other administration officials and allies make appearances; on one side quest, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. sends the player to find a vial of measles. The only way to lose is to try to hold first lady Melania Trump’s hand. The climax involves collecting Truth Social posts to open the Strait of Hormuz.
At the start of the game, a prompt asks, “Ready to ROCK Iran back to the Stone Ages?,” referencing a social media post the president made in early April vowing to send Iranian targets “back to the Stone Ages where they belong.” The game’s response options are “Not Yet … ,” “Yes” and “Hell Yes.”
More than 14,000 people had played the game online by 3 p.m. Monday. The game was intentionally created without guns or shootings.
Governments have long used video games as a form of soft power to “proselytize on behalf on their militaries,” said Matthew Thomas Payne, a professor of media studies at the University of Notre Dame who studies the cultural history of video games.
“Games have been used for a long time to, of course, elevate and lionize military and weapons of war,” he said. “But it’s also true that artists and game designers can use games to draw attention to that and undercut certain claims about military strength.”
Video games make a strong medium for delivering messages — including of militarism or protest — because of “the doing,” Payne added. The act of playing as a character making decisions influences how a user responds to rhetoric in a way lacking in forms of linear media, like television, movies or presidential addresses. He used “Operation Epic Furious” as an example.
“You’re the one that’s walking around finding the Big Macs,” he said. “You’re the one that’s engaging in a war of words with Pope Leo. You’re the one finding Kash Patel or JD Vance, who [in the game] has some sort of ongoing love affair with couches. Those are all things you get to trigger, and there’s something incredible affecting about that basic interaction.”
On rainy Monday morning, few tourists visited the D.C. War Memorial. A family who did shook their heads at the display. D.C. resident Josh Gamble, 26, however, saw the installation posted on Reddit and decided to make the trip.
“I found it charming,” he said. “I appreciated that they put in the effort to make it feel like an old video. … There’s a way to use interactivity and use the story structure of a video game to immerse the player into the narrative you’re trying to build that you might not be able to do with more traditional forms of protest, like visual art.”
Standing under the cover of the memorial’s dome, Gamble played through the game but never found a “You Win” screen.
“I couldn’t tell if there something I was missing or if that was done on purpose, if that was the commentary they were trying to make in the game,” he said. “The war with Iran, it’s sort of a cycle of military action and then posting on the internet about it and it doesn’t seem like we’re getting closer to any sense of resolution.”
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