发布于2026年3月12日，美国东部时间凌晨4:00 / 来源：CNN
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美国政府不仅仅希望美国人支持它与以色列对伊朗发动的战争；它还想煽动民众情绪。
如今，通过宣传视频歪曲现实以捍卫特朗普政府最具争议举措的做法，人们应该已经不陌生了。
国土安全部将大规模驱逐移民变成好莱坞式动作短片的那种煽情手法，如今被五角大楼、白宫和美国中央司令部效仿，他们将战争“玩梗”化（meme-ifying）。
但这些视频与实地报道之间的冲突，同样令人感到熟悉。大规模驱逐不仅拆散了家庭，还将有才华的、会演奏墨西哥流浪乐队音乐的青少年等非暴力移民，以及政府承诺打击的罪犯一网打尽。
在美国，被联邦特工杀死的人并未如政府最初宣称的那样从事国内恐怖主义活动。
在战争中，政府越来越难以否认美国战斧导弹可能击中了一所女子学校——CNN的分析表明。美国军方表示，正在调查此次空袭，但周三CNN报道称，此次打击可能是基于有关附近海军基地的过时情报下令发动的。
如今，社交媒体上充斥着虚假的AI生成内容，验证哪些视频准确变得越来越困难。事实上，伊朗也在传播一些明显虚假的视频，声称显示美军士兵被俘或炸弹击中特拉维夫，但这些都不符合事实。
特朗普政府希望你看到的
在白宫版本的伊朗战争叙事中，武器系统——B2轰炸机、高机动性火箭炮系统（HIMARS）、F-18战斗机以及各种“砰砰作响”的装备——与特朗普政府成员一同成为主角。
一段视频中，总统唐纳德·特朗普、国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯和国务卿马尔科·卢比奥的声音响起，背景是约翰·李·胡克（John Lee Hooker）的歌曲《Boom Boom》的更新版本，整体风格宛如电影预告片。
在这些视频中，所有导弹都命中目标，既没有美军伤亡，也没有伊朗伤亡的画面。特朗普在视频中暗示，伊朗异见人士应抓住这一机会发动新的革命。但在公开场合，他表示自己并不在意伊朗是否建立民主制度。
赫格塞斯多次重复称，战争何时结束取决于美国何时决定结束。但这一说法与事实相悖：伊朗已选定被暗杀的阿亚图拉阿里·哈梅内伊的儿子穆贾塔巴·哈梅内伊，继承其父成为最高领袖。特朗普称穆贾塔巴·哈梅内伊的上位不可接受，但拒绝对伊朗新领导人是否已成为美国打击目标表态。
“玩得开心”
周一在迈阿密向众议院共和党人发表讲话时，特朗普似乎在开玩笑称，军方击沉伊朗船只比捕获它们“更有趣”。“他们更喜欢击沉它们。他们说击沉更安全。我猜这可能是真的。”特朗普说道。此次冲突中，美国海军自二战以来首次用鱼雷击沉一艘船只，军方发布了相关视频。
带标志的战争，毫无怜悯
美国中央司令部发布的另一段视频中，爆炸被以艺术化方式放慢速度，结尾是“史诗怒火行动”（Operation Epic Fury）的标志。没错，这场战争甚至有了一个标志。
这类视频已不在少数，它们通过将导弹打击视频与《使命召唤》或《侠盗猎车手》等电子游戏片段混剪，将战争“游戏化”——在游戏中，生命是无限的，而现实中却并非如此。
作弊码
针对CNN记者杰克·塔珀（Jake Tapper）播放的关于《侠盗猎车手》视频的片段，白宫通讯主任史蒂文·张（Steven Cheung）感谢该网络“报道了我们所有的‘爆款视频’”。
“L1，R1，方块，R1，左，R2，R1，左，方块，下，L1，L1”张在另一篇帖子中说道。
（对于不玩游戏的人来说，这是一段游戏手柄组合键，用于实现无限弹药——任何关注战争报道的人都知道，这并非美军可使用的“作弊码”。）
并非公平的较量
“我们在他们虚弱时猛击他们，”国防/战争部长皮特·赫格塞斯在一段显示某个机库爆炸的视频中说道，“这正是应有的做法。”
“[这不是一场公平的战斗]，”“deptofwar”Instagram账号另一篇帖子的配文写道，“我们的实力压倒性地占优——我们将继续战斗，直到伊朗无条件投降。”
这并不意味着美国不想将战争视为有规则的游戏。还有一些视频将军事打击（其中一些可能造成人员死亡）与美式橄榄球中的猛烈擒抱镜头混剪。
美国职业棒球大联盟的球棒击打声与爆炸声同步。
悲伤时刻
在那些能煽动情绪的视频之间，穿插着催人泪下的片段。特朗普不仅出席了六名美军士兵遗体的庄重交接仪式（这些士兵在战争初期丧生），还带去了摄像团队。白宫发布了仪式视频，配着《奇异恩典》（Amazing Grace）的音乐，并附文“[自由从不免费]”。
不会出现在白宫发布列表中的视频
如果特朗普政府想要展示美国军事力量，总统本人却不愿承认美国可能造成伊朗平民伤亡。伊朗官方媒体称，学校爆炸的死亡人数为168名儿童和14名教师。
CNN和其他新闻机构的分析表明，这所靠近军事基地的学校可能是被战斧导弹击中的。虽然其他国家也拥有战斧导弹，但目前卷入冲突的只有美国。
周一的新闻发布会上，特朗普试图转移责任，称导弹可能来自伊朗。“事实上，那是[战斧导弹]——但战斧导弹很通用，其他国家也有。”特朗普回避责任，称他最终会“接受”正在进行的军事调查结果。早些时候，他曾表示认为是伊朗发动了此次袭击。
伊朗视角
对于伊朗国内的真实情况，CNN是少数获准在该国境内报道的媒体之一。记者弗雷德·普莱特根（Fred Pleitgen）与摄影记者克劳迪娅·奥托（Claudia Otto）一同前往。根据当地法规要求，CNN在伊朗的运营得到伊朗政府的许可，但对报道内容保留完全的编辑控制权。周二，他们目击了多轮猛烈空袭。
美国人对这场战争持怀疑态度
战争中的宣传并非新鲜事，任何熟悉“铆工露西”（Rosie the Riveter）或里根总统二战电影中美国军方形象的人都清楚。
无论特朗普政府如何推销这场战争，有证据表明它目前并未获得美国公众的支持。民调显示，大多数美国人反对这场战争，尽管多数共和党人表示支持。
还有证据显示，特朗普并不总是了解为他服务的宣传活动。即将卸任的国土安全部部长克里斯蒂·诺姆（Kristi Noem）在国会山宣誓作证时称，特朗普批准了一项有争议的2.2亿美元广告宣传活动，其中诺姆是核心人物。据《ProPublica》报道，该活动还为一名前国土安全部发言人的丈夫带来了一笔丰厚的分包合同。
但特朗普表示，他对以诺姆为焦点的广告活动毫无记忆。“[我对那事一无所知]，”他在路透社采访中说道，而这距离诺姆被解职宣布只有几天。
有迹象表明，特朗普对伊朗战争对油价的影响感到紧张，他称战争将很快结束——但随后又自相矛盾地表示美国还有更多行动要做。
‘Boom Boom’ US propaganda vs. the emerging Iran war reality
Published Mar 12, 2026, 4:00 AM ET / Source: CNN
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The US government doesn’t simply want Americans to support the war it launched with Israel on Iran; it wants to pump people up.
The bending of reality with propaganda videos to defend the Trump administration’s most controversial moves should feel familiar by now.
Echoing the sensibility by which the Department of Homeland Security turned mass deportation into Hollywood-style action vignettes, the Pentagon, the White House and US Central Command are meme-ifying war.
But the way these videos conflict with reports on the ground should feel familiar, too. Mass deportation has split families and ensnared talented Mariachi-playing teenagers, among other nonviolent immigrants, in addition to the criminals the administration promised.
In the US, people killed by federal agents did not turn out to be engaged in domestic terrorism as the administration initially claimed.
In this aerial photo released by the Iranian Press Center, mourners dig graves on March 3 for 168 young students Iranians say were killed when airstrikes hit the Shajaba Tayyiba Girls’ elementary school in Minab.
Iranian Press Center/AFP/Getty Images
In war, it is becoming increasingly difficult for the administration to deny that an American Tomahawk missile struck a girls’ school, as a CNN analysis suggests. The US military says an investigation into that strike continues, but CNN reported Wednesday the strike may have been ordered based on outdated intelligence about a nearby Naval base.
Verifying which videos are accurate is increasingly difficult at a time when social media is also being clogged by fake, AI-generated content. In fact, Iran has been promoting some obviously fake videos purporting to show captured American soldiers and bombs hitting Tel Aviv, neither of which is true.
What the Trump administration wants you to see
In the White House version of the war on Iran, the weapons systems — B2 bombers, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), F-18 fighters and all manner of things that go boom — are given starring roles alongside members of the Trump administration.
One video featuring audio from President Donald Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio has the feel of a movie trailer and is set to an updated version of the John Lee Hooker song “Boom Boom.”
In these videos, all missiles hit their marks, and there are no images of casualties, either American or Iranian. Trump suggests in the video that Iranian dissidents should seize this opportunity for a new revolution. In public, he has said it does not matter to him if democracy takes hold in the country.
The war will end, Hegseth has repeated, when the US decides to end it. That idea is at odds with the fact that Iran has selected Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of assassinated Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to succeed his father as supreme leader. Trump has said the elevation of the younger Khamenei is not acceptable but declined to say whether Iran’s new leader now has a target on his back.
Having ‘fun’
Speaking to House Republicans in Miami on Monday, Trump seemed to be joking when he said the military has more “fun” sinking Iranian ships than capturing them. “They like sinking them better. They say it’s safer to sink them. I guess it’s probably true,” Trump said. This conflict has seen the first torpedo sinking of a ship by the US Navy since World War II. The military released a video.
A war with a logo and no mercy
In another video posted by US Central Command, explosions are slowed down in a stylized way and the post ends with an “Operation Epic Fury” logo. Yes, this war appears to have a logo.
Add that one to the long list of Iran war-focused videos that have already been scrutinized for glorifying the conflict by interspersing video of missile strikes with video games like Call of Duty or Grand Theft auto, where, unlike in the real world, lives are unlimited.
Cheat codes
In response to a segment CNN’s Jake Tapper aired about the Grand Theft Auto video, White House communications director Steven Cheung thanked the network “for covering all of our banger videos.”
“L1, R1, SQUARE, R1, LEFT, R2, R1, LEFT, SQUARE, DOWN, L1, L1” Cheung said in another post.
(For those who don’t game, that is a video game controller sequence to achieve unlimited ammo, which anyone who has been following coverage of the war will know is not a cheat code available to the US military.)
Not meant to be a fair fight
“We are punching them while they’re down,” says Defense/War Secretary Pete Hegseth as video shows an explosion in some kind of hangar. “Which is exactly how it should be.”
“[This is NOT a fair fight],” read the caption in another post on the “deptofwar” Instagram account. “Our capabilities are overwhelming—and we will not stop until Iran surrenders unconditionally.”
That does not mean the US doesn’t want to view the war in terms of games with rules. There is also a mashup of military hits, some of which presumably killed people, with images of hard tackles in the game of football.
The cracks of Major League Baseball bats are timed to explosions.
Moments of sadness
Interspersed with videos that get the blood pumping are those that tear at the heart strings. Trump didn’t just attend the dignified transfer of the remains of six American servicemembers killed in the early days of the war, he took along a camera crew. Video from the service, along with a version of “Amazing Grace,” was posted by the White House with the tagline “[Freedom is never free].”
Video that won’t appear on the White House feed
If the Trump administration wants to showcase American military might, the president does not want to acknowledge the possible US role in Iranian casualties. The death toll from the school bombing is at 168 children and 14 teachers, according to Iranian state media.
Analysis by CNN and other news organizations suggests the school, which is near a military base, was struck by a Tomahawk missile. While other countries do have Tomahawk missiles, those countries are not currently involved in this conflict.
Trump tried to deflect during a press conference Monday when he said the missile might have originated from Iran.
“The fact that it’s [Tomahawk] — a Tomahawk is very generic. It’s sold to other countries,” Trump said, deflecting blame for now. He said he would ultimately “live with” the outcome of the ongoing military investigation. Earlier, he had said he thought the strike was “done by Iran.”
The view from Iran
For what it’s like on the ground in Iran, CNN is the rare organization reporting from inside the country. Reporter Fred Pleitgen is there with photojournalist Claudia Otto. CNN operates in Iran with the permission of the Iranian government, as required under local regulations, but maintains full editorial control over what it reports. On Tuesday, they witnessed waves of heavy airstrikes.
Americans are skeptical of this war
Propaganda is nothing new in war, as anyone familiar with Rosie the Riveter or Ronald Reagan’s World War II movies with the US military will know.
And whatever the Trump administration is doing to sell the war, there’s evidence it so far is not working with the US public. Polls suggest most of the country disapproves of the war, although there is support among a majority of Republicans.
There is also some evidence Trump doesn’t always know about the propaganda undertaken on his behalf. His outgoing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said under oath on Capitol Hill that Trump had approved a controversial $220 million ad campaign that prominently featured Noem. The campaign also resulted in a lucrative subcontract for the husband of a now-former DHS spokesperson, according to a report by ProPublica.
But Trump said he has no memory of what the Noem-focused ad campaign.
“[I never knew anything about it],” he told Reuters on Thursday, not long before Noem’s ouster was announced.
There has been some indication Trump is nervous about the Iran war’s effect on gas prices, and he has said the war will be over soon — before contradicting himself and saying the US had more to do.
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