Hasbro has responded to the Department of Homeland Security using Optimus Prime in its deportation posts on X.
The company put out a statement Thursday on its official Instagram account.
“Optimus Prime is a beloved character who represents humility, leadership, compassion and justice,” reads the statement. “Hasbro is aware of the recent posts using his likeness.”
“These posts were done without permission and do not represent the Transformers brand or Hasbro,” Hasbro continued.
The statement doesn’t name DHS or the posts, but the agency put up at least two Optimus Prime images this week.
What DHS Posted
On September 9, the DHS account posted about pulling truck drivers off the road over commercial driver’s licenses.
“DHS is getting the worst of the worst off of America’s roads,” the post reads. “Far too many American lives have been lost or permanently changed because illegal aliens who have no business being on our roads have been granted CDLs.”
DHS then quote-tweeted itself with a fake movie poster titled “Transformers: Age of Deportation,” a play on 2014’s Age of Extinction.
The poster puts Optimus Prime in ICE colors, with “ICE” across his truck-cab chest and DHS seals on his shoulder and torso.
A second image, this one AI-generated, shows Optimus Prime facing a man on the road with the text “Self-deport or find out” and “America for Americans. Get off our roads, you don’t know how to drive Mr. Singh.”
The man in the image resembles the Indian-origin truck driver arrested in Florida last year over a crash that killed three people.
That post topped 4 million views by Thursday morning.
Follows The Trump Green Lantern Video
The DHS posts come four days after the official White House account posted an AI-generated video of President Donald Trump as a Green Lantern, timed to Lanterns Episode 4 on HBO.
The White House account previously posted a Trump Superman image for James Gunn’s Superman and an AI image of Trump holding a lightsaber for Star Wars Day.
DC and Warner Bros. Discovery never publicly addressed any of them.
Hasbro responded to the Optimus Prime posts within a day.
Hasbro isn’t the first company to object, either. Last October, The PokĂ©mon Company said a DHS “Gotta Catch ‘Em All” deportation video used its property without permission.
Two Weeks After Peter Cullen’s Death
The posts also land two weeks after the death of Peter Cullen, who voiced Optimus Prime for more than 40 years. Cullen died August 26 at 85.
Hasbro is in the middle of its “1986 Apology Tour” marking the 40th anniversary of The Transformers: The Movie, with a 4K theatrical run set for September 17-22 through Fathom.
Those screenings include Optimus Prime: Awakening, a 12-minute short featuring Cullen’s final performance as the character.
Hasbro released the first clip from the short on Thursday, which reveals Bumblebee as a Decepticon.
As of this writing, the DHS posts remain up, and the agency hasn’t responded to Hasbro’s statement.
The Transformers: The Movie returns to theaters September 17.
