{"id":1929530,"date":"2026-05-11T16:22:45","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:22:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1929530"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:22:45","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T13:22:45","slug":"trump-iran-war-video-game-artwork-appears-on-national-mall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1929530","title":{"rendered":"Trump Iran War Video Game Artwork Appears on National Mall"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\tA video game critiquing the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to continue the US and Israel\u2019s war in Iran has popped up on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., making it the latest anti-Trump artwork to appear in a public space in the nation\u2019s capital.<\/p>\n
\n\tAs was the case with many of those other artworks, the creator of this one is the Secret Handshake, a group of anonymous artists who have previously produced objects alluding to Trump\u2019s ties to Jeffrey Epstein, among other topics.<\/p>\n
\n\tThis new one, which is sited at the D.C. War Memorial, is titled Operation Epic Furious: Strait To Hell<\/em> and is made to look like an arcade game replete with colorful images of Trump, FBI director Kash Patel, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, and more. Included alongside their portraits are quotations from their speeches and some of Trump\u2019s Truth Social posts.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe\u00a0Trump\u00a0administration knows that the best way to sell combat is by making it a video game, that\u2019s why they\u2019ve been pumping out the \u2018sickest\u2019 Iran War video game hype reels,\u201d a plaque installed alongside the video game reads. \u201cBut why stop at clips when you could go full throttle? Introducing Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell, a high-octane, flag-waving, boots-on-the-ground simulator where freedom isn\u2019t debated, it\u2019s deployed. No briefings, no hesitation; just pure pixelated patriotism. Strap in and play hard, because this game may never end.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tIn an email, the Secret Handshake told ARTnews<\/em>, \u201cIn\u00a0Trump\u2019s America, war isn\u2019t just patriotic, it\u2019s gamified. The administration is using hype footage from video games in official military videos promoting the conflict with Iran. The only problem is those games aren\u2019t actually about the Iran War. That\u2019s why we created the first ultra-patriotic Iran War video game,\u00a0Operation Epic Furious: Strait To Hell.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\tThe work vaguely recalls at least one other art piece about another war with American involvement: Cory Arcangel\u2019s Bomb Iraq<\/em> (2005), a playable game that the artist produced during the Bush administration\u2019s repeated assault on Iraq.<\/p>\n
\n\tFor those not able to see Operation Epic Furious: Strait To Hell<\/em> in person, the Secret Handshake has also posted a playable version online.<\/p>\n
\n\t\u201cThe game features furious tweet battles against Iranian schoolgirls, low-flow shower heads, and other threats to American freedom like DEI and The Pope,\u201d the artists said. \u201cAnd just to save you time, the only way you can lose is by trying to hold Melania\u2019s hand. But it\u2019s The Middle East, so you also can\u2019t win either.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\n
\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>The Secret Handshake\u2019s Operation Epic Furious: Strait To Hell<\/em>.<\/span>Courtesy the artist<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ac1.png?w=1024″] A video game critiquing the Trump administration\u2019s efforts to continue the US and Israel\u2019s war in Iran has popped up on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., making it the latest anti-Trump artwork to appear in a public space in the nation\u2019s capital. As was the case with many of those other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1929530","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929530","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1929530"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1929530\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1929530"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1929530"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1929530"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/ac2.png?w=400\")
<\/div>\n<\/div>