With public support collapsing for his administration’s war in Iran, Donald Trump’s White House has resorted to counting social media impressions as a sign of victory after gleefully posting images of destruction, threaded with clips from Marvel movies and Call of Duty.
Real-world footage of multi-million dollar airstrikes that have killed hundreds of Iranians has been spliced together with clips from video games and pop culture references in montages that appeal to accounts on Elon Musk’s X, all while trolling their antiwar critics.
The White House seems to think it’s working
“We’re over here just grinding away on banger memes, dude,” said a senior White House official granted anonymity by Politico.
“There’s an entertainment factor to what we do,” the person said. “But ultimately, it boils down to the fact that no one has ever attempted to communicate with the American public this way before.”
Twenty three years ago today, then-President George W. Bush delivered a five-minute televised address announcing the beginning of “military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger.”
That “shock and awe” campaign began a yearslong occupation leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis, Americans and coalition troops.
But public support for U.S. military forces in Iraq, despite no existence of “weapons of mass destruction” to justify a bloody invasion, surpassed 90 percent within the early weeks of the campaign in 2003, and even stayed as high as 74 percent in the month Bush delivered his infamous “Mission Accomplished” speech. Support fell to about 60 percent by the end of the summer that year.
That’s still miles above public support for the Trump administration’s campaign in Iran, which has entered its third week with shifting rationales, several claims of victory, and a hostility towards the media that scrutinizes U.S. military decision-making.
At least 52 percent of voters do not believe going to war is worth the risk of American service members and civilians dying, or the cost of billions of dollars in taxpayer dollars, according to polling from Data for Progress on March 18.
The poll found 68 percent of voters oppose the U.S. deploying troops on the ground.
Even 79 percent of Trump’s MAGA base would support his declaration of victory and a quick end to the war, according to polling from the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and The American Conservative magazine.
“Trump’s base favors a face-saving declaration of victory by Washington that could enable a ceasefire and prevent further economic shocks,” Quincy Institute executive vice president Trita Parsi said in a statement Wednesday.
As Trump considers sending U.S. forces to seize oil and gas assets or enriched uranium, nearly 60 percent of his base opposes deploying boots on the ground entirely, the poll found.
Yet the memes persist, explicitly aimed at a younger and extremely online base. But Trump voters aged 18-29 support the war by only a narrow margin (+8) compared to Trump voters aged 30-49, who support the war by +26 points, according to the Quincy Institute’s polling.
“Polls show that a lot of young people are actually somewhat supportive of this war and our goal is to deliver content to them,” said another senior White House official speaking anonymously to Politico.
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly told The Independent that, under Trump’s “decisive leadership, America’s heroic warfighters are meeting or surpassing all of their goals under Operation Epic Fury.”
“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,” she said.
The messages have especially disturbed former military officials and members of Congress, particularly veterans of America’s forever wars, as well as faith leaders — Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, delivered a rare public rebuke saying he was sickened by depictions of “a real war with real death and real suffering being treated like it’s a video game.”
“Hundreds of people are dead, mothers and fathers, daughters and sons, including scores of children who made the fatal mistake of going to school that day. Six U.S. soldiers have been killed. They are also dishonored by that social media post. Hundreds of thousands displaced, and many millions more are terrified across the Middle East,” Cupich said in a recent statement.
“Our government is treating the suffering of the Iranian people as a backdrop for our own entertainment, as if it’s just another piece of content to be swiped through while we’re waiting in line at the grocery store,” he added. “But, in the end, we lose our humanity when we are thrilled by the destructive power of our military.”
Sen. Tammy Duckworth, who lost both legs when her Blackhawk helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade fired by Iraqi insurgents in 2004, said “war is not a f****** video game.”
“This is sick and morally bankrupt,” said Rep. Jason Crow, who was among several members of Congress with military and intelligence backgrounds who warned troops against following “illegal” orders.
“Our servicemembers deserve so much better than this,” he added.
At least 200 U.S. troops have been injured during the conflict, and at least 13 service members have been killed.
White House officials, meanwhile, are celebrating the views their videos are racking up.
“Over a four day period, the videos that we put out had over 3 billion impressions,” another official told Politico. “That blows away anything we’ve ever done in the second term.”
“Like what is ‘war communications’? What the former Bush people say?” another said. “Well, if you want to talk about war communication under the Bush era — not great. ‘Mission accomplished’? It’s just a different time. It’s a different audience.”
Richard Painter, who served as the chief White House ethics lawyer in the Bush administration from 2005 to 2007, stressed that “war is not a movie or a video game.”
“Wars will be a lot less frequent when the people who simulate wars actually have to fight wars,” he wrote.
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