Editorials & Other Articles

At his political rally in Kentucky, Donald Trump told a curious story about Iranian ships destroyed by the U.S. military in recent days. According to the president’s version of events, he grew angry with his military leaders, asking, “Why the hell did we kill them? Why didn’t we just capture them and use them in our navy?”

Eventually, according to Trump, a U.S. general told him, “Sir, it’s a lot more fun doing it this way.”

Trump: "They knocked out 54 ships in two days. I got mad at my people. I said, 'Why the hell did we kill them? Why didn't we just capture them and use them in our Navy?' They said they wouldn't have qualified for that. One of my generals said, 'Sir, it's a lot more fun doing it this way.'"

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2026-03-11T21:12:41.267Z

.....There are a variety of adjectives that a wartime American leader should use when talking about this avoidable crisis. “Fun” isn’t one of them.

But by all appearances, the White House has come to a very different conclusion. As The New York Times reported:

On Feb. 28, the Trump administration launched war on Iran. The following week, it drafted Iron Man, Walter White and SpongeBob.

These characters, and many more figures from movies, TV, sports, music and video game memes, appeared in a series of short, trolling videos from the White House, on platforms including TikTok and X (formerly known as Twitter), that reduce the war’s carnage and upheaval to flippant, dystopian amusements......

The president and his team, however, appear eager, almost gleeful, to be cavalier about matters of life and death in ways that are fundamentally at odds with basic human decency.

It’s as if the White House saw the evidence of widespread public opposition to the war and concluded the way to turn things around is through juvenile taunts and jokes an adult should be embarrassed to make.

I don’t know what, if anything, could improve public support for this inexplicable war, but if the president and his team could try acting like grown-ups for a while, it’d be a step in the right direction.

Perhaps the best thing you can say for this particular public-relations effort is that at least it accurately embodies the pointless, slapdash amorality of the military offensive it’s meant to bolster.