White House frames Iran war as a game of Call of Duty in social video

The official X account of the White House has shared a video that prefaces footage of the US-Israeli war on Iran with a clip from what appears to be 2023’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, and overlays real-world images of missile strikes with score pop-ups from Activision’s military shooter games.

The start of the video shows a player calling in an MGB strike in a game of Call of Duty. The MGB (Mass Guided Bombs) strike is a difficult-to-unlock, game-ending killstreak reward in the two most recent Modern Warfare games. It calls in an aircraft that drops several missiles and instantly wins the match.

The video then shows a montage of aircraft and missile launches followed by footage of explosive strikes on Iranian military installations and vehicles, including Wednesday’s sinking of the Iranian frigate Iris Dena off the coast of Sri Lanka, which cost at least 87 lives. Each strike is accompanied by a pop-up graphic showing “+100” score, a reference to older games in the Call of Duty series.

The overall effect is strongly reminiscent of “Death from Above,” a famously chilling level from the original Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare from 2007. In “Death from Above,” the player controls an AC-130 gunship aircraft, obliterating ground targets from high altitude in a detached, grainy, black-and-white video feed.

The White House’s video is soundtracked by an instrumental version of Childish Gambino’s track “Bonfire,” which starts with an air raid siren. Over the heavy hip-hop beat, a voice says, “We’re winning this fight” and “We’re taking control.”

The post is captioned “Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue,” an apparent reference to “Courtesy Of The Red, White And Blue (The Angry American)” a pro-war song by country singer Toby Keith from the War on Terror era in the early 2000s.

The Trump administration has often used video game memes in its social media posts, to controversial effect. The White House has shared an image of President Trump dressed as Master Chief from Halo, while the Department of Homeland Security has used imagery from Halo and Pokémon in its recruitment drive for ICE agents.

Using video game imagery in its propaganda is nothing new from the current White House. But the way real footage of deadly strikes is seamlessly blended with Call of Duty in this triumphalist video is particularly eerie and unsettling.

Polygon has contacted Call of Duty: Modern Warfare publisher Activision and developer Infinity Ward for comment.