The Pokemon Company International has responded to US President Donald Trump's administration using a Pokemon Pokopia meme to promote MAGA's agenda and disclaim any affiliation or involvement in the creation of the meme. Pokemon Pokopia is showing early signs of massive success and its publisher would like to keep it out of the political spotlight.
In the days leading up to the release Pokemon Pokopiathe first life sim in the monster-catching franchise's 30-year history, several memes mimicking the game's cover art have started popping up on various social media platforms. However, rather than the game's name, these memes displayed a wide variety of different messages, all utilizing the signature, multi-colored font, and all-lowercase nature of the game's name. Pokemon fans used an online template to create these memes, which display a wide variety of messages, both provocative and mundane, and not all of them Popopia or Pokemon franchise in general.
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Pokemon denies affiliation with the MAGA Pokopia meme
On March 5th, the same day the game launched for the Nintendo Switch 2 in most of the world, the official White House Twitter account joined the trend, posting Pokemon Pokopia meme that uses a cover art that simply reads “make america great again”. The post was met with a lot of backlash online, much of it via similar user-generated memes, and as a result, The Pokemon Company International issued a response to members of the press denying any connection to Trumps brand of political messaging. “We were not involved in its creation or distribution, and no permission was granted to use our intellectual property,” spokesperson Sravanthi Dev said, as quoted by TIME. “Our mission is to bring the world together, and that mission is not tied to any political opinion or agenda.”
The response is very similar to the one The Pokemon Company International made last September regarding the use of its intellectual property by the White House social media team. In that case, the official White House TikTok account shared the video with the original English language Pokemon anime theme song and montage of ICE agents and heavily armed Department of Homeland Security operatives arresting several people, relying on the franchise's catchphrase “Gotta Catch 'Em All”. Among the images in this video of federal agents blowing up doors and loading handcuffed individuals into vehicles were several short clips from the anime itself. Shortly after the video was shared by the White House's TikTok account, the company issued an official public response saying, “Our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission to use our intellectual property was not granted.”
Neither statement is an outright condemnation of the political message conveyed by the White House social media team, and rather both appear to be intended to maintain a neutral political stance and protect Pokemon brand intellectual property. In both cases, no official legal action was taken by Nintendo or The Pokemon Company.
Despite any potential controversy caused by the meme, the life simulator game seems to have been a huge success for Game Freak and Omega Force in its early days. Pokemon PokopiaAccording to current ratings from professional reviewers, it is in line with the highest rating Pokemon game of all time on Metacritic's aggregate review, matching Pokemon Y's score of 88, based on a pool of 63 critical reviews. Early reports also suggest that the game is selling well, although official numbers from its publisher are still pending due to the recent launch.
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March 5, 2026
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Interaction between all / users, in-game purchases
