President Donald Trump posted what appears to be a snippet from one of the montages of destruction compiled by his aides to reassure him that his war on Iran is going according to plan.
The 79-year-old president shared footage on Monday night of what officials confirmed was a bunker-buster bombing attack against an ammunition depot in Isfahan, central Iran, the Wall Street Journal reports.
The Truth Social clip shows a large number of 2,000-pound penetrating munitions being used against the site, setting off a dramatic chain of explosions that lit up the night.
It comes as Trump administration officials claim the president’s aides are feeding him mash-up clips of successful strikes against Iranian targets—mainly, “stuff blowing up”—by way of keeping him abreast of his war on the Islamic regime, which he started on Feb. 28.
One official explained that the montages, each of which cover the previous 48 hours, are being used because “we can’t tell him every single thing that happens,” and that they are intended to supplement briefings from military and intelligence advisers.
They added that the clips focus on U.S. gains in the war because these tend to get a better response from Trump’s immediate team, and that the clips are therefore likely failing to capture the full scope of the situation on the ground.
Trump’s Monday night post comes amid wider concern over his administration’s use of gamified compilations of strikes on Iran to bolster public perception of the conflict online.
The White House posted one such video earlier this month, opening with footage from the 2023 first-person shooter Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 before smash-cutting to slips of the strikes on Iran, accompanied by an instrumental rendition of rap star Childish Gambino’s 2011 hit “Bonfire.”
One Trump official boasted to Politico that the clips had amassed more than 3 billion impressions within just four days of being posted.
Retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges told the outlet the videos are “detached from reality.” He said, “Our allies look at this and they wonder, what the hell is going on. It doesn’t look like we’re serious.”
Despite the successful U.S. strikes shared with and by the president, there is broad consensus among security analysts that Iran still holds some important cards.
One key factor is the Iranian regime’s ability to impose strategic and economic costs beyond the battlefield, particularly through its effective blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane through which around a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes.
This has already triggered deepening shocks across oil markets and the wider global economy, with gas prices in the U.S. alone reaching almost $4 a gallon at the start of this week.
Such is the Iranian regime’s chokehold on the Strait that White House insiders have begun to warn that Trump may be forced to put boots on the ground if he wants to claim a credible victory in the conflict.
“The off-ramps don’t work anymore because Iran is driving the asymmetric action,” one source told Politico earlier this month. “To a large extent, they hold the cards now,” another added.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment on this story.
