Pokémon condemns White House for using its imagery

Pokémon Company International has condemned the White House's use of its imagery, including a tiny version of the popular character Pikachu, in a meme posted online with the phrase "Make America Great Again".

"We were not involved in its creation or distribution, and no permission was granted for the use of our intellectual property," said Pokémon spokeswoman Sravanthi Dev. "Our mission is to bring the world together, and that mission is not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda."

The company has previously criticised the Trump administration for using its imagery to promote its deportation drive.

When contacted by the BBC, the White House suggested the company has a political bias.

The company did not say if it intended to pursue a lawsuit against the US government.

The 30 year-old brand, which recently released the game Pokopia for Nintendo, had similarly rebuked President Donald Trump's administration in September for using its theme song, and slogan "Gotta catch 'em all", in a video showing arrests made by US border patrol and immigration agents.

At the time, it also said it was not involved in the creation or distribution of the content and had not granted permission to use its intellectual property.

The latest meme appears to use an image from Pokopia, with the slogan written in a similar font to the game. A small version of Pikachu pops out from behind the letter "e" in "make".

Asked about Pokémon's statement, the White House directed the BBC to a post on X by spokesman Kaelan Dorr.

The post includes a photo of a 10 year-old Wall Street Journal article on Trump's 2016 Democratic rival in the presidential election, Hillary Clinton, referring to the game Pokémon Go to encourage supporters to vote. Clinton had said: "I'm trying to figure out how we get them to have Pokémon go to the polls".

"Hey Mr Pikachu, big fan. Question for you - why no response to articles like this?" Dorr posted.

"Seems kinda like you ARE maybe affiliated with a political viewpoint, no?"

In Trump's second term, the administration has frequently used popular memes on official government social media accounts.

White House Spokeswoman Abigail Jackson previously described the strategy, saying: "Through engaging posts and banger memes, we are successfully communicating the president's extremely popular agenda."

Most recently, the White House posted a video that mixed images from the war against Iran with clips from the video game franchise Call of Duty.

Numerous artists have complained about their content being used by the Trump administration on social media.

Comedian and podcaster Theo Von, who has previously interviewed Trump on his programme and says he supports him politically, reacted angrily last year when the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) used a clip of him speaking to reveal the agency's deportation numbers.

"Yooo DHS i didnt approve to be used in this," Von wrote on X.

"I know you know my address so send a check. And please take this down and please keep me out of your 'banger' deportation videos."