analysis
The US President glorifies the Iran War on Tiktok and Co. as a computer game. Trump does this on purpose.
March 21, 2026, 1:52 p.mMarch 21, 2026, 1:52 p.m
Raffael Schuppisser / ch media
When a 17-year-old entered his former school in Parkland with a semi-automatic weapon on February 14, 2018, Donald Trump had been in office for just over a year. The teenager killed 17 people and injured just as many. The president quickly found a culprit: computer games. “I’m hearing more and more people say that the level of violence in video games is really shaping the minds of young people,” Trump said.
On this he agreed with the Democratic President Bill Clinton, whom he hated. He drew similar conclusions in 1999 after the Columbine shooting. The majority of media researchers now agree that this is too simplistic. Attacks can hardly be attributed to the consumption of virtual violence.
Game or reality – hard to say
During his first presidency, games were still part of the problem for Trump. Now, in its second, they have become part of the solution. He uses them to justify his war: On the White House’s official social media channels, Trump distributes videos that aestheticize the current Iran war by mixing real battle scenes with video game content.
It looks something like this: First you see a scene from the first-person shooter “Call of Duty” in which a hand types in a launch code, then a real scene of a rocket taking off, followed by an impact on a truck.
In another video it’s simpler: a pixelated character swings a golf club to good mood music in the family game “Wii Sports” and hits the ball, which flies out of the picture. Then cut to reality where a war base is hit. “Hole in one,” a voice announces. A direct hit.
The Archbishop of Chicago thinks that this is “disgusting”. Other Internet users resort to even more drastic words: “Obscene.” – “Absolutely tasteless!” Trump and his government are turning war into a game. The suffering of the victims – including six Americans – is ignored.
The fusion of video game aesthetics and real war reporting marks a turning point in political communication: war is no longer explained or justified, but rather staged as an entertaining spectacle.
A game is fun, you play to pass the time. When children do it, there is often no clear goal. And if you listen to Trump and his ministers, that doesn’t seem to be the case in the Iran war either. Regime change, destruction of the nuclear weapons program, a warning finger to China? These are all reasons given for the war. But they can’t really explain it; Statements and actions by the US government are too contradictory.
Trump is deliberately tearing down the border
Trump mixes war and games into a social media mush. But warfare and computer games are actually steadily getting closer to each other. On the one hand, computer game graphics are becoming more and more realistic – scenes from “Call of Duty” or “Arma” have already been used to spread fake news about wars. Who can see the difference? On the other hand, military equipment is increasingly being operated like computer games. Drones can be controlled miles away from the site – you don’t risk your life, just your finger on the trigger.
In 2018, Trump discussed how school shootings can be prevented during a speech by then-Governor Jay Inslee of Washington.Image: EPA/EPA
This convergence is being driven forward by the development of computer technology. The mixing becomes problematic when it is no longer clear what is game and what is war. Trump consciously tears down this limit – and in doing so recodes the political evaluation of video games. What was once criticized as the cause of violence now serves as an aesthetic tool to stage real violence and at the same time to relieve oneself emotionally from it. (aargauerzeitung.ch)