{"id":330837,"date":"2026-03-10T01:48:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T01:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/330837\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T01:48:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T01:48:14","slug":"white-house-war-promo-blends-pop-culture-imagery-with-combat-footage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/330837\/","title":{"rendered":"White House war promo blends pop culture imagery with combat footage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peaceful and violent, in video game screenshots and movie clips and on professional playing fields, the icons come fast and furious in quick-cut footage \u2014 some of the most renowned slivers of 21st-century American popular culture, harnessed by the Trump administration to promote the freshly launched war with Iran<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The White House\u2019s social media feed has issued a series of pumped-up videos that mix real Iran war<\/a> explosions with movie action heroes, gaming footage<\/a> and bone-crunching football tackles, leading critics like a top cleric of the U.S. Catholic Church to condemn a trivialization of deadly real-life conflict.<\/p>\n

Clips from \u201cBraveheart,\u201d \u201cSuperman,\u201d \u201cTop Gun,\u201d \u201cBreaking Bad,\u201d and \u201cIron Man.\u201d All appear cut between declassified imagery of what is presumably the Iran war. Even the cartoon likeness of SpongeBob SquarePants is spliced in, asking, \u201cYou wanna see me do it again?\u201d in between images of buildings, planes and vehicles blown up by American bombs. The caption on one bomb-heavy post: \u201cCourtesy of the Red, White and Blue\u201d \u2014 the title of a post-9\/11 Toby Keith song about war that is subtitled \u201cThe Angry American.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"People<\/p>\n

People wait in line for theater presentations for video games including Batman, Mortal Kombat X and Shadow of Mordor at the WB Games booth at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Wednesday, June 11, 2014, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong, File)<\/p>\n

People wait in line for theater presentations for video games including Batman, Mortal Kombat X and Shadow of Mordor at the WB Games booth at the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Wednesday, June 11, 2014, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo\/Jae C. Hong, File)<\/p>\n

Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n

Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n

Share<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

The fiction-meets-reality product of the White House\u2019s aggressive social media team cuts a wide swath through cultural touchstones that resonate with young men, including the video games Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Halo. Two videos feature NFL and college football tackles and Major League Baseball home runs \u2014 with the cracks of bats interspersed with explosions.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re set to ominous or aggressive music, including Childish Gambino\u2019s \u201cBonfire,\u201d Miami XO\u2019s \u201cBazooka\u201d and AC\/DC\u2019s \u201cThunderstruck.\u201d One of the White House postings described the video as \u201cJUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY,\u201d accompanied by flag and fire emojis.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard not to see the thinking here: The more cinematic the content, the more people might support the war.<\/p>\n

Two actors call for their depictions to be removed from videos<\/p>\n

The sounds and images of American popular culture, a sure attention-getter in many contexts, have increasingly been used in politics in recent decades, at least as far back as Bill Clinton\u2019s use of Fleetwood Mac\u2019s \u201cDon\u2019t Stop\u201d during his 1992 presidential campaign. Never, though, has a White House built and disseminated content quite like this, drawing explicit parallels between the aggressive moments of modern entertainment \u2014 a video game kill shot, a hard football hit, a towering home run \u2014 and battle footage to amplify the enthusiasm for war<\/a>. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s happening with the White House videos, which some call the \u201cgamification\u201d of war, hasn\u2019t landed well in some quarters. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Stiller accepts the awards for best comedy for \u201cTropic Thunder\u201d at the 14th Annual Critics\u2019 Choice Awards, Thursday Jan. 8, 2009, in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo\/Chris Pizzello, File)<\/p>\n

Ben Stiller accepts the awards for best comedy for \u201cTropic Thunder\u201d at the 14th Annual Critics\u2019 Choice Awards, Thursday Jan. 8, 2009, in Santa Monica, Calif. (AP Photo\/Chris Pizzello, File)<\/p>\n

Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n

Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n

Share<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

Two actors whose work appeared in the videos \u2014 Ben Stiller, who starred in the 2008 movie \u201cTropic Thunder,\u201d and Steve Downes, who portrays Master Chief, the protagonist in Halo \u2014 said the material was used without permission and called for their depictions to be removed.<\/p>\n

Stiller said on X that he had \u201cno interest in being part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie.\u201d Downes called the videos \u201cdisgusting and juvenile war porn.\u201d Neither the NFL nor Major League Baseball would comment on the use of their footage in the war videos.<\/p>\n

The discussion reached a high level in the U.S. Catholic Church as well. Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, said he found it sickening to see a war that has brought real death and suffering being treated like a video game. That approach, he said, dishonors the people who have died, including U.S. servicemen.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Archbishop<\/p>\n

Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich, answers a journalist\u2019s question during an interview with The Associated Press, in front of St. Bartholomew church, in Rome, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo\/Gregorio Borgia, File)<\/p>\n

Archbishop of Chicago, Cardinal Blase Cupich, answers a journalist\u2019s question during an interview with The Associated Press, in front of St. Bartholomew church, in Rome, Thursday, Oct. 9, 2025. (AP Photo\/Gregorio Borgia, File)<\/p>\n

Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n

Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n

Share<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

\u201cOur government is treating the suffering of the Iranian people as a backdrop for our own entertainment, as if it\u2019s just another piece of content to be swiped through while we\u2019re waiting in line at the grocery store,\u201d Cupich said in a weekend statement. \u201cBut, in the end, we lose our humanity when we are thrilled by the destructive power of our military.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked for comment, the White House would not say whether or not it would accommodate artists who said their work was used without permission.<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerica\u2019s heroic warfighters are meeting or surpassing all of their goals under Operation Epic Fury,\u201d said White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly. \u201cThe legacy media wants us to apologize for highlighting the United States Military\u2019s incredible success, but the White House will continue showcasing the many examples of Iran\u2019s ballistic missiles, production facilities, and dreams of owning a nuclear weapon being destroyed in real time.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the first time this White House has trotted out game-related memes. Last year, it posted a drawing of Trump dressed as Master Chief. In another, it made Trump look like a blocky Minecraft character with the caption: \u201cAmerica\u2019s most pro-gamer president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every war has a psychological dimension, and this seems to be part of it, said Zia Haque, director of the Baker Institute for Peace and Conflict Studies at Juniata College in Pennsylvania. \u201cWe live in a digital age, and I see this as a use of the space to propagate the message across the board,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

A motivation to be cool? <\/p>\n

Some observers also cast the administration\u2019s content as potential efforts to encourage gamers to join the military. It wouldn\u2019t be a first: The Pentagon\u2019s efforts to recruit players date to at least 2002, with the release of a first-person shooter called America\u2019s Army. The Defense Department also sends recruiters to video game conventions and esports tournaments.<\/p>\n

Today, many of Trump\u2019s loudest fans are young white men who are gamers and heavy consumers of sports and popular culture \u2014 and thus likely a receptive audience for such imagery and music.<\/p>\n

Many young men are motivated to join the military because they want to be cool like the people they see in action movies, said Ray Deptula, who recently retired from the U.S. Navy after 24 years and rose to the rank of commander. That\u2019s what motivated him, he said. So he can see the appeal of the videos. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Gamers<\/p>\n

Gamers play \u201cHalo Wars 2″ at the Xbox Media Showcase at E3 2016, Monday, June 13, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Casey Rodgers\/Invision for Microsoft\/AP Images, File)<\/p>\n

Gamers play \u201cHalo Wars 2″ at the Xbox Media Showcase at E3 2016, Monday, June 13, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Casey Rodgers\/Invision for Microsoft\/AP Images, File)<\/p>\n

Add AP News on Google <\/p>\n

Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google.<\/p>\n

Share<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

But, he says, there\u2019s a caveat \u2014 a big one.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s not what your life is going to be like,\u201d said Deptula, who recently wrote a novel, \u201cA Dog Before a Soldier,\u201d about a young man who joined the military out of desperation during the Revolutionary War. \u201cYour life is going to be about hard work and humility.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Jeff Fromm, co-author of \u201cMarketing to Gen Z,\u201d has doubts about the videos\u2019 long-term effectiveness. <\/p>\n

Many young people in Generation Z are keenly interested in transparency and the values of organizations they are seeking to join, and Fromm questions whether the current administration rates highly in those areas.<\/p>\n

Sometimes the overlap between real life and game culture is accidental. Last week, Trump posted on Truth Social that defense contractors had agreed to \u201cquadruple Production of the \u2018Exquisite Class\u2019 Weaponry.\u201d Policy experts were puzzled \u2014 but Final Fantasy XIV players were reminded of the game\u2019s most powerful weapons. Still, the president probably wasn\u2019t calling for the game\u2019s Exquisite Wrathgrinder to go into production.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Associated Press correspondents Matt Brown in Washington and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peaceful and violent, in video game screenshots and movie clips and on professional playing fields, the icons come…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330838,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[163084,3991,31103,114,7216,68549,54,146,5968,122,85,87,117780,46,163085,3896,397,163086,105,163082,125,163083,17022,917,121,12526,126],"class_list":{"0":"post-330837","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-anna-kelly","9":"tag-ben-stiller","10":"tag-bill-clinton","11":"tag-business","12":"tag-domestic-news","13":"tag-donald-glover","14":"tag-donald-trump","15":"tag-entertainment","16":"tag-gaming","17":"tag-general-news","18":"tag-il","19":"tag-iran","20":"tag-iran-war","21":"tag-israel","22":"tag-jeff-fromm","23":"tag-military-and-defense","24":"tag-movies","25":"tag-ray-deptula","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-steve-downes","28":"tag-technology","29":"tag-toby-keith","30":"tag-u-s-department-of-defense","31":"tag-u-s-news","32":"tag-war-and-unrest","33":"tag-washington-news","34":"tag-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}