It seems that President Donald Trump has gained another well-earned hater: Genshin Impact developer miHoYo. The game’s big 7.0 update added a great deal to this open-world RPG, including the final major region, Snezhnaya. Despite the scope of the release, it didn’t take long for players to find an in-game bulletin-board post that not-so-subtly rips into President Trump’s recent Reflecting Pool scandal.
The in-game bulletin is written by Grand Duke Diomid Turzov, who is upset at imaginary vandals who “defaced” his fountain by peeling off its paint. In reality, the damage was caused by his own ineptitude.
“I built a fountain. It is enormous. Without question, it is the most beautiful fountain in all of Snezhnaya. Maybe even the most beautiful in all of Teyvat,” the Grand Duke says in a cadence that’s very easy to link to the President. After noticing that Tigalda (jellyfish-like creatures) had ruined the fountain’s water, the Duke “painted the bottom with beautiful, bright paint. After that, it looked incredible. So incredible!” But there’s a twist: the paint he used attracted even more Tigalda.
To solve this problem (which he created), he “poured a huge amount of bleach into the fountain, and it became clean again. I won. A historic victory, like no one’s ever seen!” Of course, the excess of bleach caused the paint to peel. The Duke reacted, “It’s obviously fake news. Totally fake,” and he claimed “thugs from Rokot” are “sneaking into the manor at night and tearing the paint off with their filthy hands! Embarrassing. So embarrassing!” The bulletin ends with the Duke saying he’s going to “the biggest, toughest, strongest warriors money can buy” to defend the fountain.
On top of the Grand Duke’s speech patterns giving away that this is a Trump parody, the specifics are a reference to the President’s botched repairs of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. To briefly recap that convoluted controversy, the Reflecting Pool has become increasingly murky in recent years due to algae blooms, which are caused by leaky pipes and inadequate water treatment. However, instead of addressing the root causes of the problem, Trump opted for a quick fix, hiring a firm (which is owned by one of his donors) to paint the pool’s surface blue and reseal it. The project was supposed to cost $1.5 to $2 million, but ended up being approximately $14 to $16 million.
After the project was “completed,” the pool’s algae blooms returned, and the new paint job began to peel and bubble. Shortly after, the administration attempted to find a scapegoat for the peeling paint. Former Olympian David Hearn was arrested and charged with property destruction, with Trump saying, “We had vandalism… it’s a sad thing.” The administration’s case was dismissed by a judge, who said the alleged sabotage was actually caused by a “botched installation” of the paint.
Genshin Impact’s Reflecting Pool spoof isn’t the first time the game made fun of Trump either. In the Fontaine region, there’s a book called “The Art of Negotiation” (a jab at Trump’s The Art of the Deal). It includes lines like, “The most powerful weapon in a negotiation is the truth, and the truth can be manipulated.” Art definitely imitates life.
