President Donald Trump assembled a lineup of MAGA sycophants who gave him an exuberant standing ovation after he stumbled through an address filled with falsehoods about his war with Iran.
The 79-year-old president’s audience of loyalists included many of his Cabinet members, even those who have harbored reservations about the war, plus military officials and devotees tied to Trump-aligned political and policy groups like the America First Policy Institute.
The standing ovation, which came after Trump declared he would “bring” Iran “back to the stone ages where they belong,” drew comparisons to frenzied applause typically reserved for dictators such as North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.
For the primetime address, the press was restricted to just one photographer and a single TV camera, according to HuffPost White House correspondent S.V. Dáte.
An awkward moment ensued when the audience had to be cued to applaud at the end of Trump’s speech, apparently in order to give the TV broadcast time to cut away.
For several uncomfortable seconds after wrapping up his address, Trump stared straight ahead while the audience sat in silence, until a voice gave the all-clear for people to clap and rise.
Conservative Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen posted a video of the standing ovation on X while gushing, “An incredible honor to be there for the President’s address to the nation on Iran. Had to wait till the networks cut away to applaud! No other president would have done this. The world will be safer because of his leadership.”
Fred Fleitz, a vice chair at the America First Policy Institute, posted a photo to X before the address, grinning into the camera while standing in a walkway leading to the White House.
Among those in the front row were Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Attorney General Pam Bondi, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Vice President JD Vance.
Vance, 41, is a fervent anti-interventionist who was “skeptical” of strikes against Iran, according to reports, having campaigned with Trump on a “no new wars” platform in 2024.
Yet he stood up to clap following the president’s warmongering speech on Wednesday—as did Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who once warned that a conflict with Iran would be catastrophic and make America’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan “look like a picnic.”
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
