The White House posted a meme on Jan 15 that appropriated Stardew Valley’s style to promote its "whole milk" initiative. The tweet read, "Whole milk is back. 🥛" and included a partially AI-generated graphic.
The image shared by the White House showed President Donald Trump as a Stardew Valley-style character in a barn. Meanwhile, AI-generated scenery filled the background. Icons appeared on the left side of the image, including an American flag, a police badge, and a MAGA hat, among others.
Stardew Valley fans slammed the "AI slop" image
Soon after, someone reposted the image to the r/StardewValley subreddit. Although moderators later removed it for being political, the comments piled up quickly. People expressed anger, confusion, and mockery in equal measure.
Critics accused the administration of taking from artists without legal clearance. Many online argued that this happened because officials assumed they would not get approval, or because they did not view the arts as a legitimate profession.
"Jesus….this is so bad… and it’s AI slop too. 😭" u/Sigma_Male_69420 wrote. u/DeafnotDeath added, "They absolutely did not. F*cking freaks running the White House PR have been stealing countless artists’ work, regardless of size."
Mockery followed as well. "You know this clown would exclusively pick the Joja run too," u/Derpykins666 joked.
Some people fixated on the gold count, which read 45464748. u/Dumi2e asked if it was a dog whistle, to which u/Unaccomplishedcow responded, "45 (he was the 45th president) 46 (he thinks he won 2020, making him the 46th potus) 47 (he won 2024, making him 47 right now) 48 (he wants to serve a third term)"
Elsewhere, @BrennenWilde tagged Stardew Valley creator Eric, aka ConcernedApe, on X. "Hey, the Trump admin is currently using AI generated art of your game for their propaganda," they wrote. So far, Eric had not responded.
Critics questioned the "whole milk" messaging
While fans debated art theft, others questioned the message itself. "Is this an agriculture campaign?" @RocketGPT asked. However, several users pointed to darker associations.
X user @eggploont connected the meme to past extremist symbolism. They wrote that whole milk had served as a white supremacist dog whistle. They shared a New York Times article describing geneticist Dr. John Novembre’s 2018 conference talk about whole milk's ties to white supremacy.
The article explained that white nationalists had chugged milk in 2017 to promote adult lactose tolerance.
"In most of the world," the article explained, "the gene that allows for the digestion of lactose switches off after childhood. But [...] a chance mutation that left it turned on [in Europe] provided enough of a nutritional leg up that nearly all of those who survived eventually carried it."
Because that trait appeared more often in white Europeans, extremists used it to push racist ideas. Given the Trump administration’s hardline stance on immigration, some people on social media questioned whether the "whole milk" messaging carried a more troubling subtext.
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