“MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” Donald Trump tweeted along with what may be one of the stranger bits of political propaganda of this very strange election year.
That video, dubbed “Trump Effect,” is a mashup of the trailer for the 2010 video game “Mass Effect 2” with random clips of people fighting, protesters at Trump rallies, endorsements and the standard video-game trailer splashscreens containing pullquotes and “review scores” (Ben Carson gives it “10/10”). The video culminates in a rousing speech from Trump himself as the orchestral score reaches its peak.
The pullquote splashscreen reads “‘Donald Trump is simply awe-inspiring.’ -All who gaze upon him,” so there’s a reasonable chance the video was a gag. Trump tweeted it even so.
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/717003103871115267?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Also featured prominently is the original trailer’s voice-over from Martin Sheen, who plays one of the “Mass Effect” trilogy’s villains, The Illusive Man. “We’re at war. No one wants to admit it but humanity’s under attack. One very specific man might be all that stands between humanity and the greatest threat of our brief existence,” Sheen’s narration goes. In the game, The Illusive Man’s comments refer to Commander Shepard, the protagonist of “Mass Effect 2,” but of course in this mashup they’re redirected toward Donald Trump.
“Mass Effect 2” was made by the Edmonton, Canada-based video game studio BioWare, a subsidiary of publisher Electronic Arts. EA took down the “Trump Effect” video on YouTube with a copyright claim, though it is still available on vid.me, and the YouTube embed still works from Trump’s tweet.
BioWare employee Manveer Heir was alerted to the video and was not exactly pleased.
https://twitter.com/manveerheir/status/717012335169241089
Watch the video above.