{"id":524855,"date":"2026-03-15T10:56:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:56:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/524855\/"},"modified":"2026-03-15T10:56:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-15T10:56:09","slug":"trumps-war-rhetoric-is-coarse-its-also-heard-differently-depending-on-the-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/524855\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s war rhetoric is coarse. It’s also heard differently, depending on the audience"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In one of his latest missives<\/a> on social media, President Trump complained that he wasn\u2019t getting enough credit for \u201ctotally destroying the terrorist regime of Iran, militarily, economically, and otherwise.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have unparalleled firepower, unlimited ammunition, and plenty of time,\u201d he wrote of a war that has crippled the global supply of oil, sharply increased gas prices<\/a>, cost U.S. taxpayers billions, left thousands dead and wounded, and so far defied Trump\u2019s own \u201cshort term\u201d<\/a> timetable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWatch what happens to these deranged scumbags today,\u201d Trump added. \u201cThey\u2019ve been killing innocent people all over the world for 47 years, and now I, as the 47th President of the United States of America, am killing them. What a great honor it is to do so!\u201d<\/p>\n

Again and again in recent days, Trump and other top officials in his administration \u2014 notably Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth \u2014 have projected confidence and power in Iran in a coarse and triumphant tone that is unprecedented for U.S. wartime presidents and their Cabinet members, according to experts in presidential rhetoric and propaganda.<\/p>\n

They have consistently described the war in terms of how hard the U.S. is hitting Iran, rather than why it must do so. They\u2019ve talked of destroying the Iranian navy and air force, wiping out its leadership and making the U.S. \u201cmore respected\u201d globally than it has ever been, including by showing no mercy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was never meant to be a fair fight, and it is not a fair fight. We are punching them while they\u2019re down, which is exactly how it should be,\u201d Hegseth said<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Missing is the solemnity of past wartime leaders facing dead U.S. soldiers, a recalcitrant enemy and a precarious tactical position, replaced by a message of U.S. mercilessness \u2014 of contempt for Iran rather than concern for its civilians or a focus on the American ideals that U.S. presidents have long tried to rally the world around, especially in times of war.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a time when people can see the effects of the war when they fill up their gas tank, and when there have been American casualties, the triumphalist tone is just not something a president normally does,\u201d said Robert C. Rowland, a professor of rhetoric at the University of Kansas and author of the book \u201cThe Rhetoric of Donald Trump: Nationalist Populism and American Democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMany presidents wouldn\u2019t have that tone for personal moral reasons,\u201d Rowland said, \u201cbut they also know that it can backfire when things don\u2019t go well.\u201d<\/p>\n

James J. Kimble, a communication professor and propaganda historian at Seton Hall University, said U.S. presidents have \u201cby and large\u201d struck a respectful tone in wartime, though there are some exceptions. President Truman, justifying dropping atomic bombs on Japan, wrote that \u201cwhen you have to deal with a beast<\/a>, you have to treat him as a beast,\u201d while the U.S. produced World War II posters designed to \u201cdemonize and dehumanize the German enemy,\u201d he noted.<\/p>\n

Still, Trump\u2019s messaging \u2014 including his \u201cexpressing glee at the death of foreign combatants\u201d \u2014 has been \u201cmuch coarser,\u201d Kimble said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s moving beyond the idea of defeating the enemy on the field of battle, and more into a kind of defeat as humiliation \u2014 intentional humiliation,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s schoolyard bullying, along with the physical violence.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked about Trump\u2019s rhetoric, Anna Kelly, a White House spokeswoman, said Trump \u201cwill always be proud to recognize the incredible accomplishments of our brave service members.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder the decisive leadership of President Trump, America\u2019s heroic war fighters are meeting or surpassing all of their goals under Operation Epic Fury,\u201d she said. \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

Trump has built his political career around blunt rhetoric, and his messaging on Iran has drawn applause from his supporters. Polling has shown the public is heavily divided on the war<\/a> \u2014 drawing far less public support<\/a> than past wars, but broad support from Republicans.<\/p>\n

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has accused the media of ignoring \u201cclear\u201d objectives that the president and others have set for the war effort, including wiping out Iran\u2019s missile systems, preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon and stopping what Trump had a \u201cfeeling\u201d was a coming attack on the U.S.<\/p>\n

However, Trump and Hegseth have themselves strayed from that framework with their brash rhetoric, and their focus on the killing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei<\/a> and other Iranian leaders.<\/p>\n

Trump has dismissed reports that the U.S. bombed an Iranian school full of children by suggesting that Iran may actually have been responsible, despite reported findings by U.S. intelligence<\/a> that it was an American attack.<\/p>\n

Hegseth has added to concerns about careless U.S. bombing by expressing disdain for wartime rules designed to limit civilian casualties, calling them \u201cstupid rules of engagement.\u201d<\/a> <\/p>\n

\u201cOur war fighters have maximum authorities granted personally by the president and yours truly,\u201d Hegseth said. \u201cOur rules of engagement are bold, precise and designed to unleash American power, not shackle it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House has also pushed out a wave of wartime propaganda on social media, often striking the same irreverent, bullish tone, experts noted.<\/p>\n

One video interspersed movie clips of superheroes and soldiers with real footage of Iranian targets getting blown up, under the words, \u201cJUSTICE THE AMERICAN WAY.\u201d The clip drew condemnation, including from the actor Ben Stiller<\/a>, who objected to the inclusion of footage from his film \u201cTropic Thunder,\u201d saying, \u201cWar is not a movie.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth\u2019s bravado has also been caricatured on \u201cSaturday Night Live<\/a>,\u201d which opened two weeks in a row with a satirical portrayal of him as angry, dimwitted and hyped up on the violence of war.<\/p>\n

All of it has come against a backdrop of Islamophobic remarks from members of Congress on X, with Rep. Andy Ogles (R-Tenn.) writing that \u201cMuslims don\u2019t belong in American society\u201d and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) posting a picture of the 9\/11 terrorist attack next to an image of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who is Muslim, and writing \u201cthe enemy is inside the gates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Certainly Iranian leaders have expressed similar contempt for the U.S. for years. Khamenei, killed at the start of the war, was known for stoking anti-American sentiment, speaking to crowds amid chants of \u201cdeath to America.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, U.S. presidents have traditionally spoken with more reserve. They have slammed U.S. enemies, but often by drawing a contrast between them, the U.S. and the values the U.S. purports to defend globally. They have expressed confidence in past U.S. missions, but been wary of taking a celebratory or triumphant tone \u2014 especially at the start of a war, amid intense fighting, as American troops are still dying.<\/p>\n

Not so with Trump, who on Wednesday said, \u201cYou never like to say too early you won. We won. We won … . In the first hour, it was over.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said, \u201cOver the past 11 days, our military has virtually destroyed Iran,\u201d and \u201cthey don\u2019t have anything.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Thursday, six U.S. service members were killed when a refueling aircraft crashed in Iraq. On Friday, the U.S. military announced it was sending 2,500 Marines and an additional U.S. warship to the conflict. <\/p>\n

Kimble said there are several ways to view Trump\u2019s war rhetoric. One is \u201cthrough the lens of PSYOPS, or psychological operations\u201d \u2014 or intentional messaging aimed at discouraging the enemy, akin to the U.S. dropping leaflets in World War II telling foreign combatants that they must surrender or die. In that view, Trump is speaking directly to the Iranians, trying to get them to \u201cperceive victory as impossible.\u201d <\/p>\n

Another is to view Trump and Hegseth as projecting a tough image for their MAGA base, their Democratic rivals and any other nations they might be preparing to challenge, such as Cuba.<\/p>\n

Rowland said Trump \u201calways has to be the big dog in the room,\u201d and his war messaging should be viewed in that context.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of the rhetoric is performative cruelty,\u201d Rowland said. \u201cIt\u2019s more about him coming across as dominant than it is about making a case that the war has been good for the U.S. and the region and the West and the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In one of his latest missives on social media, President Trump complained that he wasn\u2019t getting enough credit…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":524856,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[236433,23,236434,124974,801,236437,3,236439,236432,236438,2384,3479,236436,2830,21,19,22,20,25,24,1139,236435],"class_list":["post-524855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-47th-president","tag-america","tag-german-enemy","tag-hegseth","tag-iran","tag-messaging","tag-news","tag-real-footage","tag-rhetoric","tag-rowland","tag-time","tag-trump","tag-u-s-wartime-president","tag-u-s","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-war","tag-white-house-spokeswoman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=524855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/524855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/524856"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=524855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=524855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=524855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}