Secret Arts Group Places Anti-Trump Video Game in Greenland

A mystery arts group called Secret Handshake has placed a real, playable video game arcade cabinet on a rocky cliff in Nuuk, Greenland. The game is called 'Nuuk 'Em All,' and it pokes fun at President Trump's repeated interest in making Greenland part of the United States. The group sent a photo of the cabinet to the Los Angeles Times, showing it sitting alone on a cliff above the sea, with a small iceberg floating below and rooftops of a nearby town visible in the distance.

Secret Handshake is a group that keeps its members a secret. Over the past year, the group has created more than a dozen pieces of guerrilla art — artwork placed in unexpected public spaces without permission. Most of their earlier pieces appeared on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., and in July they placed a golden, ten-foot-tall 'Iran War Participation Trophy' in New York City, which later moved to the Minnesota State Capitol.

Getting the arcade cabinet to Greenland was no easy task. When asked how they pulled it off, a group representative called it 'honestly very difficult' and described it as a 'planes, trains, and automo ... ships' situation. The rep joked that the Arctic is 'actually quite far' and that people there are 'not used to whipping over arcade games.'

'Nuuk 'Em All' is the second satirical video game Secret Handshake has made. The first, released in July, was called 'Operation Epic Furious: Strait to Hell,' where players control a version of Trump as he wages a silly war with Iran. Both games are meant to make people laugh while also making them think about real political events.

The new game starts with an animation of the White House covered in construction equipment, with text reading, 'The year is 2026. The White House is under constant construction, reconstruction and construction of the reconstruction.' In the game, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wakes Trump from a 'tactical nap' to report trouble with Iran, telling him that the U.S. has 'used up all our missiles, and gas now costs more than bourbon.' From there, Trump heads north to Greenland to battle silly enemies like 'Woke Yetis' and 'Fully Vaccinated Children.'

The game arrived in Greenland shortly after the Trump administration signed a deal with Greenland and Denmark to expand U.S. military presence in the Arctic. Trump had previously made several unwelcome suggestions that the U.S. should take over Greenland, which is a self-governing territory of Denmark. The Secret Handshake representative said that while people in Greenland may feel some relief, the group worries the pressure from the U.S. is not truly over.

The group also pointed to a deeper message inside all the silliness of the game. The representative said that beneath the jokes, the game 'actually ends up back in reality — the character is still stuck in an endless loop of war in Iran.' The group hopes players walk away thinking not just about Greenland, but about ongoing conflicts happening in the real world.