'Oh s**t, here we go again': White House uses videogame clips to promote its war in Iran, including CJ's iconic line from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

One of the most famous and enduring lines of dialog in videogames is the prophetic utterance of Carl "CJ" Johnson in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: "Ah shit, here we go again." It's a feeling I can relate to, because the US government is once again using videogames to promote its policies and activities, this time its war against Iran—and yes, it's using that famous Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas clip to do it.

The first such clip actually went up a few days ago: A message posted by the official White House account on March 4 features the text "courtesy of the red, and blue," and a video that splices Call of Duty gameplay with real-world clips, including footage of strikes and explosions taken from the US war again Iran.

In keeping with current political theory, it's the sort of thing a 12-year-old might find cool, and Call of Duty does at least comport with the overall theme of waging war in the Middle East primarily as a form of entertainment.

The newer post, though, is baffling. It's been a long time since I played San Andreas, but I don't recall CJ or anyone else on Grove Street being big supporters of authoritarian government. But there he is, walking up the alley, saying the line, and then it cuts to something getting blown up and the famous game-over message "Wasted." The sequence repeats four times beneath all-caps text reminding us that this is "OPERATION EPIC FURY," which probably also sounds cool to some 12 year olds.

This isn't the first time the US government has leaned into videogames for propaganda purposes. In October 2025, the White House posted an image of Donald Trump as Halo's Master Chief; a day later, the US Department of Homeland Security used a different Halo image in a message urging followers to join ICE and "destroy the flood," a reference to immigration. Prior to that, in September 2025, DHS and Customs and Border Patrol used Pokémon imagery to promote anti-immigrant sentiment.

The Pokémon Company said at the time that it had not granted permission for the US government to use its property in these messages, but the White House brushed off the complaint. And it actually went back to Pokémon in between the two videos above, posting a "Make America Great Again" message in the Pokopia font earlier this week. In response, the Pokémon Company said again that it was "not involved in its creation or distribution, and no permission was granted for the use of our intellectual property."

The heavy use of videogame content by government agencies we're nominally supposed to take seriously feels odd, to put it very mildly, and especially so when those messages are being used in support of an unprovoked attack on another country. But there's method to the madness: The Trump administration has proven adept at weaponizing bigotry and misinformation through social media, and a not insignificant portion of the gamer audience is very receptive to that sort of messaging.

A Guardian report that followed the White House's Master Chief message last year notes that Trump and various supporters have actively courted the gamer demographic since the start of his first presidential campaign in 2016, thanks in part to the influence of Steve Bannon, a Trump advisor and former White House strategist who in the early 2000s ran a World of Warcraft gold farming business.

In 2017, USA Today quoted Bannon as describing gamers as "rootless white males" with "monster power," and telling Bloomberg Businessweek reporter Joshua Green, "You can activate that army. They come in through Gamergate or whatever and then get turned onto politics and Trump."

Given all that, and the lack of pushback from major game companies (apart from the Pokémon Company), I would expect to see more of this in the future, not less. And even though, in line with current Trump doctrine, it's unlikely that anyone can stop them, it sure would be nice if Microsoft or Take-Two or Rockstar or someone at least spoke up about it.

Rockstar parent company Take-Two declined to comment on the White House posts. I've reached out to Rockstar and the White House for more information and will update if I receive a reply.