On Thursday, less than a week after an airstrike killed dozens of children in an Iranian elementary school, and one day after the Pentagon named two of the six American soldiers killed by a drone, the White House posted a video on X blending real-world bombing footage with clips from action movies and video games.
Titled “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY,” the video included memes and jokes from “Top Gun,” “Halo” and “Dragon Ball Z” and was widely promoted by top officials in President Donald Trump’s administration. White House deputy director Kaelan Dorr reposted it with the caption, “Wake up, Daddy’s Home.”
Many online were outraged by what they said was a sick and callous joke from the nation’s highest public office. “Little girls are dead. Six Americans are dead,” Jon Favreau, a liberal podcaster and speechwriter for former president Barack Obama, wrote on X. “It’s not a video game. … It’s not another chance to troll the libs. It’s f—ing war.”
The video is part of an unprecedented White House digital operation turning the Iran war effort into a meme campaign, mixing unclassified missile footage from U.S. Central Command with the kinds of fictional and fantasy content young people share online for laughs.
On Thursday, the White House posted a video overlaying airstrike footage with the lyrics “Kaboom, kablow” from the viral rap song “Bazooka,” and another mixing clips of missile detonations with SpongeBob SquarePants. On Friday, the White House published another video referencing “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas,” flashing the message “WASTED” — what the game’s players see when they die — atop missile footage showing trucks and people being engulfed in flames.
No pause. No hesitation.
pic.twitter.com/TTjS98VKAb
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 5, 2026
The videos have pulled from a wide range of media franchises, and it’s unclear whether the White House sought approval for their use. Ben Stiller, an actor whose movie “Tropic Thunder” was featured in the “JUSTICE” video, said in an X post Friday that the White House should remove the clip, writing, “We never gave you permission and have no interest in being a part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie.”
But some Trump supporters have defended the digital approach as helping build attention and support for U.S. military action, all while celebrating the nation’s war-fighting power.
White House communications director Steven Cheung adopted the slang phrase of a video game streamer on X when he shared a video interweaving real strikes with a kill-streak video from “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3”: “W’s in the chat, boys,” Cheung wrote, the “W” being something viewers type repeatedly when they see a win.
“The legacy media wants us to apologize for highlighting the United States Military’s incredible success, but the White House will continue showcasing the many examples of Iran’s ballistic missiles, production facilities, and dreams of owning a nuclear weapon being destroyed in real time,” White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said in a statement.
The clips extend a White House media strategy that has sought to win political points by running serious policy issues through the irreverent lens of internet culture. The White House’s communications office, which employs a team of video editors and social media producers, has for months pumped out TikTok-style memes and music videos characterized by what Dorr called “unapologetic” speed and “ferocity” in an interview with The Washington Post last year.
The virality of the videos, Dorr argued, would help distract from critical media reports, undercut the messaging of political opponents and help bolster the administration’s policy goals — a digital machine for replicating what Trump has often accomplished in real life.
Roger Stahl, a professor at the University of Georgia who studies war and media, said the administration may hope the provocative videos will rally Trump’s political base and obscure the human costs of a war led by the most powerful military on the planet, in which the lives of many soldiers and civilians remain at risk.
“They’re using this really stylized, hyped-up imagery to build up this aesthetic of bloodlust … and turn war and military matters into entertainment,” Stahl said. They’re giving Americans the “empathy-free … Hollywood, video game version of warfare” to distance the public “from the realities of what makes them uncomfortable.”
Some veterans, however, have argued that the strategy could backfire by trivializing the life-and-death toll of a foreign war. Connor Crehan, an Army veteran of the Iraq War who co-hosts the Barstool Sports military podcast “Bold American,” said in an X post: “War isn’t a video game. The consequences of war are final. I wish we didn’t treat it with such a cavalier approach.”
Sorry to be Debbie downer War isn’t a video game. The consequences of war are final. I wish we didn’t treat it with such a cavalier approach https://t.co/XFleuAgVdO
— Cons (@CaptainCons) March 5, 2026
More than 50,000 U.S. troops are involved in the Iran conflict, and six U.S. soldiers have been killed during fierce Iranian retaliatory strikes that have targeted American outposts and interests across the Middle East. Trump has said there will “likely be more” U.S. military deaths before the campaign is over, adding, “That’s the way it is.”
The Pentagon has worked with Hollywood since the 1940s, and especially aggressively since Sept. 11, 2001, to subtly shape Americans’ opinions about war by providing support for productions that help glorify or normalize the violence of combat.
The military-entertainment complex, as critics have often dubbed it, has benefited the media makers by giving their performances an air of authenticity — and primed a new generation of recruits for the armed forces, ready for action.
But that kind of war-as-spectacle messaging has rarely been touted at the presidential level, Stahl said. Executive branch officials have most frequently spoken about war efforts clinically and solemnly, so as not to be seen joking about putting American troops in harm’s way.
The White House’s meme approach notably contrasts with that of Central Command, the Tampa-based arm of the Defense Department that oversees warfighting action in the Middle East, which has posted mostly raw footage captured by thermal cameras aboard drones and gunships. One silent video posted Friday morning showed a missile strike and referred to the “continued delivery of overwhelming American military firepower.”
The White House’s media team devoted much of its energy in recent months to derisive videos about mass deportation, but the burst of Iran airstrikes has given them a new wealth of content. In the “JUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY” video, the White House wove together strike footage with a wide variety of media franchises especially beloved by men and boys, including the superheroes Iron Man and Superman; the action movies “Gladiator,” “Transformers,” “John Wick” and “Star Wars”; and the anime “Dragon Ball Z.”
It’s unclear whether the White House received permission from the franchises’ owners to use the copyrighted material in its messaging. The companies — which include Microsoft, Paramount, Disney, Sony Pictures, Lionsgate Films, Warner Bros. Discovery and Rockstar Games — have not responded to requests for comment.
On Thursday, after the White House posted a “Make America Great Again” meme in the style of the Pokémon video game, Pokémon Company spokeswoman Sravanthi Dev said in a statement the company had not given permission for use of its intellectual property and added, “Our mission is to bring the world together, and that mission is not affiliated with any political viewpoint or agenda.”
On Friday morning, Dorr offered a type of response by posting a fake Pokémon card featuring Trump himself. His powers included “Build the Wall” and “Power Tweet.”
The post The White House is transforming the Iran strikes into a meme war appeared first on Washington Post.
