The White House stunned social media users Wednesday when it posted a video mixing real footage of the missile strikes in Iran with footage from the video game Call of Duty, set to an instrumental version of Childish Gambino’s song “Bonfire.”
The roughly one-minute-long video, captioned “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue,” struck an energetic and playful tone as it began with a sequence featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III in which a player can activate a “nuke.”
Real footage of the missile strikes, which have left more than 1,000 dead in Iran, is then cut together as the fast-paced and dynamic beat plays. At certain points, a voiceover from the video game cuts in to say “We’re winning this fight” and “We’ve taken control.”
But rather than evoke a sense of patriotism, many people criticized the White House for making light of the war that has led to the death of six U.S. service members.
“War is not a video game,” Joshua Reed Eakle, a board member of Project Liberal, wrote on X. “The parents of the half a dozen American service members who already lost their lives can attest to that.”
Eakle called the video “morally abhorrent” and “despicable messaging from the White House.”
It’s unclear if the White House had permission from Childish Gambino, real name Donald Glover, to use the instrumental version of his song. In the past, it has faced backlash from artists for misusing their music in social media posts.
The Independent has asked the White House, Activision – the developer of Call of Duty –and representatives for Glover for comment.
Connor Crehan, an Iraq War veteran who works at Barstool Sports, echoed Eakle’s criticisms: “War isn’t a video game. The consequences of war are final. I wish we didn’t treat it with such a cavalier approach.”
Yuan Yi Zhu, an assistant professor of international relations and international law at Leiden University, wrote: “War is horrible even when it is justified. This is entirely lacking in taste.”
The White House is no stranger to promoting the administration’s ongoing work through “memes” and “s*** posting” – the term used to describe posting absurd or ironic content to provoke debate or make a joke of something.
Last year, the administration elevated its aggressive immigration enforcement operations through similar montage videos of undocumented immigrants being arrested, parodying advertisements, capitalizing on ongoing trends and memes. Artists such as Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo and Radiohead have all criticized the administration for using their songs on ICE videos shared on social media.
But when faced with criticisms, the communications teams often double down on their videos, brushing them off as jokes.
When asked about the social media style by the New York Times last year, White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said: “Through engaging posts and banger memes, we are successfully communicating the President’s extremely popular agenda.”
Similarly, White House communication staff members praised the recent Iran strike montage video, using Gen-Z slang.
“W’s in the chat, boys!” White House Communications Director Steven Cheung wrote.
“Based Department? Yes, I'll hold,” said Kaelen Dorr, the deputy communications director wrote, while sharing the clip.
Other administration officials appeared to endorse the video with reposts, including Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, White House official Stephen Miller, the Department of State, and Chairman of Freddie Mac Bill Pulte.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Dan Scavino Jr. posted a similar montage using a low-quality video of Secretary of State Marco Rubio mouthing the song “Fireball.” by Pitbull, which transition into a series of strike clips.
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