Trump Thinks He's Winning Because Daily Videos Show U.S. Blowing Stuff Up
Every day, Trump is presented with a video highlights update that shows video of the biggest, most successful strikes on Iranian targets over the previous 48 hours, three current U.S. officials and a former U.S. official said.
The daily montage typically runs for about two minutes, sometimes longer, the officials said. One described each daily video as a series of clips of “stuff blowing up.”
The highlight reel of U.S. Central Command bombing Iranian equipment and military sites isn’t the only briefing Trump gets about the war, though. He’s also updated through conversations with top military and intelligence advisers, foreign leaders and news reports, the officials said. (We already know he doesn't read.)
We remember this from his first term: They gave him bullet points and pictures because his attention span is so sporadic. Now, Trump allies worry he may not be receiving — or absorbing — the complete picture of the war, now in its fourth week, two of the current officials and the former official said.
They said the videos are also driving Trump’s increasing frustration with news coverage of the war. Trump has pointed to the "success" depicted in the daily videos to privately question why his administration can’t better influence the public narrative, asking aides why the news media doesn’t emphasize what he’s seeing.