Donald Trump’s top war goons are briefing the president with two-minute-long highlight reels showing frontline victories in the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, U.S. officials told NBC News.
Three current U.S. officials and a former official told the news outlet that the president is being fed a daily video mash-up summarizing the most successful strikes on Iranian targets over the previous 48 hours of the military operation in the Middle East, now in its fourth week.
The footage depicts “stuff blowing up”, one official revealed, while others said Trump’s allies are concerned that the clips may not fully capture the overall situation on the ground.
A current official said Trump is shown a condensed video montage because “we can’t tell him every single thing that happens.” The official added that the videos tended to emphasize U.S. successes, as those segments typically received a better response from the president’s aides.
The revelation comes at a time when the Trump administration faces backlash for sharing bizarre video-game mashups of the Trump administration’s lethal strikes on Iran. Trump’s team has dished out countless clips that verge on the gamification of real-life combat since launching coordinated strikes with Israel on Iran on February 28.
The use of edited combat footage reflects a broader trend in modern warfare, where curated clips of battlefield victories are used to shape public perception. In the Ukraine-Russia war, both sides have circulated visually compelling videos of strikes and frontline operations to showcase battlefield success, generate clicks and social media buzz, support recruitment efforts, and project strength to adversaries.
According to Politico, one senior official bragged that the Trump administration’s videos racked up more than 3 billion impressions within four days.
One video, posted to the official White House X account earlier this month, opens with footage from the 2023 video game Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 before transitioning into footage of actual strikes on Iran, as an instrumental version of Childish Gambino’s 2011 song “Bonfire” plays.
Speaking to Politico, retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former commanding general of United States Army Europe, said the Trump administration’s videos seem “detached from reality.”
Hodges added: “Our allies look at this and they wonder, what the hell is going on. It doesn’t look like we’re serious.”
Officials told NBC News that Trump also receives updates about the conflict from top military and intelligence advisers, foreign leaders, and news coverage.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt pushed back against suggestions that Trump wasn’t receiving a full assessment of the war.
“That’s an absolutely false assertion coming from someone who has not been present in the room,” Leavitt told NBC News in a statement. “Anyone who has been present for conversations with President Trump knows he actively seeks and solicits the opinions of everyone in the room and expects full-throated honesty from all of his top advisors.”
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House and the Pentagon for additional comment.
