MARCH 7, 2026
In this aerial handout picture released by the Iranian Press Center, mourners dig graves during a funeral for children killed in a reported strike on a primary school in Iran on March 3, 2026. Iranian media have reported hundreds of Iranian casualties, including at a girl’s school, although AFP reporters have not been able to verify tolls independently.
People were outraged this week after an official social media account for the White House posted a video that boasted about America’s bombing of Iran with a montage of clips from the popular game series Call of Duty. One therapist shared what concerns her the most about people watching the viral clip.
On Wednesday, the official White House X account posted a video that appeared to feature real footage of the missile strikes against Iran, interspersed with clips from Call of Duty. The post was shared days after the U.S.-Israeli attacks. More than 1,000 civilians in Iran, including children, have already been killed, according to Human Rights Activists News Agency, a group dedicated to Iranian human rights.
Iran has since launched retaliatory attacks on U.S. military bases, Israel and other allied countries around the region. Six U.S. service members have been killed since the conflict began last weekend.
Many people onlinewere furious that the White House appeared to make light of the bombardment of Iran. President Donald Trump faced backlash this week for responding “I guess” when Time magazine asked him whether Americans should be worried about Iran launching retaliatory attacks on U.S. soil.
“But I think they’re worried about that all the time. We think about it all the time. We plan for it,” the president had continued. “But yeah, you know, we expect some things. Like I said, some people will die. When you go to war, some people will die.”
Paul Rieckhoff, a U.S. Army veteran and the founder of the Independent Veterans of America, called the Call of Duty compilation video “inappropriate, juvenile and unacceptable,” in a post on X.
Rep. Shontel Brown (D-Ohio) also slammed the video, writing on X that “war is not a meme, a video game, or a TikTok reel.”
“The White House treating it as such is not just disgraceful ― it again shows a total lack of the seriousness, judgment, and respect for the high stakes of war that this moment demands,” she wrote.
Other X users shared similar sentiments.
“Trump’s White House X account apparently treats all this Iran bombing as a video game,” one X user wrote.
“This administration has absolutely left a stain on the prestige and class of the office of the President. We are not a serious country,” wrote another.
Both Trump and the White House have a history of sharing memes and dehumanizing videos on social media to promote the administration’s policies.
On Friday, the White House shared another video that blurred gaming with real-life war using clips from Grand Theft Auto. The day prior, the White House social media team shared a meme that placed an image of Trump’s MAGA slogan into a scene from the new Pokémon Pokopia game.
The Pokémon Company International has since released a statement clarifying that “no permission was granted for the use of our intellectual property” — although it did not mention the Trump administration by name.
Monica Cwynar, a licensed clinical social worker with Thriveworks who specializes in trauma and coping skills, said that she’s concerned that the White House’s compilation videos could have “several detrimental effects on mental health” for the people viewing them.
“They can evoke anxiety, fear, and confusion among viewers, particularly those who are sensitive to war and conflict issues,” she told HuffPost.
As for what concerns Cwynar the most about these types of videos? “The potential for such videos to create a collective desensitization to suffering and violence,” she said.
“When real-life events are presented in a manner parallel to entertainment, it can diminish the magnitude of the situation — which may lead to a lack of empathy,” she continued. “This approach can influence societal attitudes towards conflict, making it easier for individuals to overlook the human cost of war, and the [effect it] has on not just the bodies of the participants but also the families and loved ones of all involved.”
“We need to remember war is not a game and it has real, severe consequences,” she added.
The video was “very problematic,” Cwynar said.
“Regarding the irresponsibility of the video, I would argue that it is very problematic,” Cwynar said of the White House’s Call of Duty compilation.
She said that the video failed to “respect the seriousness of real-life consequences that stem from military actions.”
“It does not provide a thoughtful framework for understanding the complexities of war and conflict,” she said.
So, why would the White House social media team post such a video in the first place? Conor M. Dowling, professor of political science at the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences, said it could boil down to wanting to show that the U.S. is “winning — or simply to promote the effort.”
“Political propaganda, war propaganda in particular, has been around for decades,” he said. “The video seems to fall in line with that, although in a way that minimizes the consequences of war, which is what likely has sparked some outrage in response.”
The video “fits squarely in this administration’s messaging strategy aimed at younger males,” said William Reno, professor and chair of the political science department at Northwestern University, whose research interests include the politics of violent conflict.
“They recruit guys who must be 25 at most to generate content that appeals to Gen Z and go straight into influencers’ social media feeds to pair this video with culture wars messaging and so forth,” he said.
Reno said that he’s seen a lot of outrage over the video coming from outside the U.S.
“Perhaps people in the U.S. media ecosystem regard this latest as more of the same,” he said. “In any event, online outrage is ‘good’ from the point of view of the video’s creators. The video gets more views, like (or dislikes) to bend the algorithm in intended directions.”
The White House will need more than edgy/clever/ironic Gen Z videos as the public wakes up to bad jobs reports and higher fuel prices. William Reno, professor and chair of the political science department at Northwestern University
Reno emphasized that “folks need to put down their phones from time to time.”
“Then maybe they will think beyond visuals of this war’s military operations and reflect on the politics of this war,” he said. “The White House will need more than edgy/clever/ironic Gen Z videos as the public wakes up to bad jobs reports and higher fuel prices and another war in the Middle East.”
Reno thinks that most people who watch and share the Call of Duty video will likely see it as entertainment — which is exactly the point.
“This administration’s capacity to combine messaging with entertainment is astonishing,” he said. “Perhaps they are more reliant on this strategy as the Administration brings the US into a war without popular support.”
Reno said that many in Trump’s base are “uneasy about another war in the Middle East” and that the White House attempting to use videos to turn the conflict into entertainment “helps frame it away from the politics of this war.”
Cwynar said that the video’s critics likely perceive its blending of entertainment and reality as “trivializing critical geopolitical events and minimizing [the] suffering of individuals affected by war.”
She said it’s crucial for those who create these types of videos to “consider the potential impacts of their work, particularly in contexts involving trauma and human suffering.”
WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 04: U.S. President Donald Trump listens to speakers during a roundtable meeting on the administration’s
“When you are watching things on a screen it may feel as though it isn’t real but there is a responsibility to [remember] just how real it is,” she added.
Courtesy/Source: This article originally appeared on HuffPost
