'I didn't vote for this': Even MAGA outraged as 'obscene' war memes flood social media
American veterans are disturbed that President Donald Trump's communications team has been treating the Iran war as a joke on social media — but the administration isn't likely to change course because the outrage the tactic creates is driving up online engagement, according to a report.
Joe Buccino, a retired U.S. Army colonel, told the Washington Post he and other veterans had already been questioning the war's strategy and objectives, but they were unnerved to see the White House post music-backed clips of missile strikes mixed in with segments from Call of Duty and “SpongeBob SquarePants.”
“They’re completely diminishing what they’re asking the nation to do in Iran,” Buccino told the Post. “It seems almost obscene relative to the actual violence and suffering that’s involved with this.”
However, the White House argued the social media campaign has succeeded in communicating Operation Epic Fury’s “overwhelming success," and it said public outrage over the posts had been key to driving up millions of online views.
White House communications director Steven Cheung has previously explained that strategy after pop singer Kesha complained when her work was used in a war TikTok meme.
“All these ‘singers’ keep falling for this," Cheung said. "This just gives us more attention and more view counts to our videos because people want to see what they’re [complaining] about.”
The White House sparked outrage by posting a meme video splicing missile explosions with Nintendo Wii game footage on the same day six U.S. service members were killed in an Air Force refueling crash. Even conservative-leaning veterans groups questioned the communications strategy.
“Gamifying or making light of war also undermines the sacrifice of the Americans who have died, and obfuscates the cost of open-ended conflict," said John Vick, the executive director of the conservative advocacy group Concerned Veterans for America. “Most Americans, and especially American veterans, are ready to hear how and when we achieve victory and bring this war to a close. That is what the Pentagon needs to communicate, and soon.”
The criticism has been wide-ranging, the Post reported, rounding up critical statements from voice actor Steve Downes, whose work from the video game Halo appeared in a White House meme. He derided it as “disgusting and juvenile," while Cardinal Blase J. Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, called it "sickening" and signaled a "profound moral failure" in society.
Trump-pardoned Capitol rioter Nathan Hughes also ripped the communications strategy.
“Why is the @WhiteHouse posting cringe memes of us dropping bombs on Iran after they just blew up an elementary school full of children?” Hughes posted. “I didn’t vote for this.”
"Gold Star" families who have lost loved ones to military conflict said the White House memes were especially painful to see.
“There was a pall among all of us, because we just had immediate flashbacks," said Karen Meredith, an anti-war activist whose son died in Iraq in 2004.
Meredith was attending a Gold Star parents’ event on the day the war started, and she said she's horrified by the White House attitude toward the conflict.
“It’s so painful for us, because we know the war is not a game, and yet every day, it’s like a thousand cuts,” she said. “You can’t get away from it.”
But the strategy appears to be effective with the younger, Trump-leaning Americans who the ads are aimed at persuading.
"[They show] how strong and powerful America is on the world stage," said Malcolm Davis, a 21-year-old student at Kennesaw State University in Georgia who volunteered for Trump's campaign in 2024. "[I understand] why some people think these videos and memes are in poor taste, but it is what it is.”