White House releases celebratory video with Hollywood scenes from the Iran War

Particularly explosive: Many of the stars shown, including Robert Downey Jr. and Bryan Cranston, have publicly taken a position against Donald Trump and sometimes harshly criticized him. Other actors come from Australia, New Zealand or Canada – a detail that further amused users. Commentators spoke of a video that seemed more like the work of “a social media team of teenagers.”

War as a video game

In addition to superheroes and action figures, the video also cuts in the shady lawyer Jimmy McGill from “Better Call Saul” and the militant lone gunman John Wick. At the finale, the makers show comic and video game characters – including a quote from “Mortal Kombat”.

Critics accuse the White House of deliberately targeting polarization with AI-generated images and manipulative montages. There are also legal questions: there are probably no usage permits for the film scenes used – a point of contention that has led to several disputes with well-known artists in the past.

Actor Ben Stiller also commented promptly. “Hey White House, please remove the Tropic Thunder clip. We never gave you permission to do it and have no interest in being part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie,” he wrote on X.