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An analyst on Thursday described the White House's recent video game-style hype videos as "distasteful" following the recent deaths of six American service members in the war against Iran. The videos, which have a similar presentation and style to the popular game "Call of Duty," have been posted on the White House and Department of Defense's social media accounts and have been produced to "set the narrative" and appeal to President Donald Trump's base, which includes gamers, CNN anchor Dana Bash reported. CNN senior political analyst Nia-Malika Henderson described why the videos might have instead raised questions after the first American casualties since the military strikes started Saturday in Iran, plus the estimated 1,100 Iranians who have died."I think this is in keeping with the way Pete Hegseth is also talking about the war," Henderson explained. "He of course, had a press conference yesterday talking about utter dominance, talking about the war, likening it to a football game, I think was one of the analogies that he used. And it's part of the sort of the bro culture that Donald Trump used to win. It's part of Pete Hegseth, why he's the secretary of war and why it's not the you know, the Department of Defense anymore. So it's part of the selling of the war, and we'll see if it's effective." How Americans actually view the war is not yet clear, she said. "The shock and awe part of it is always part of the initial selling of it — the utter dominance of the American military," Henderson said. "'Best military ever in the history of the world.' We get that right. And you also could see that the White House obviously understands media, understands social media. This is a president who is watching the coverage of this war on his television set every day and trying to program it right. And so I think that that's part of it, it's part of why they were so high on the sinking of that naval vessel, which apparently was just sort of a ceremonial vessel and hyping it up. So listen, this is a White House that is good at the hype." But that hype could be insensitive to military families, Henderson argued. "I think listen, if you were part of the families who have lost Americans — six Americans have died — this is quite distasteful to liken war to a video game because, you know, these are soldiers' lives who are at risk," Henderson added. "And so to liken them to a football game or a video game, I think is offensive to a lot of people."Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue. pic.twitter.com/kTO0DZ56IJ— The White House (@WhiteHouse) March 4, 2026

Urgent request to dock is submitted by vessel after US submarine sank Iranian warship in same area on TuesdayMiddle East crisis – live updatesSri Lanka has evacuated 208 crew members from an Iranian navy vessel that made an emergency request to dock, a day after a US submarine strike sank another Iranian frigate, killing more than 80 people on board.Sri Lanka’s president, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, on Thursday confirmed that the country’s navy would take over Iranian military support ship IRIS Bushehr and allow it to dock at the north-eastern port of Trincomalee. Continue reading...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) again insisted that he would refuse to drop out of the race for U.S. Senate after President Donald Trump suggested he would endorse his opponent, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), in retaliation for threatening to disobey the commander-in-chief's demands.In a post to Truth Social this week, Trump said he would make his endorsement in the Texas Senate race "soon," adding that the candidate whom he did not endorse would be ordered to "immediately DROP OUT OF THE RACE!"Paxton responded on Wednesday by saying he would stay in the race against the president's wishes."I'm staying in this race," the candidate asserted. "I owe it to the people of Texas.""Well, that's bad for him to say," Trump said on Thursday. "That is bad for him. So maybe, maybe that leads me to go the other direction."The threat, however, did not change Paxton's mind when he was asked about it on Thursday."No, I'm going to give people in Texas a choice," he told MAGA influencer Benny Johnson. "The people in Washington can have their own opinion. The president can have his own opinion, but I've been in this race for almost a year, and we're going to win this race in the runoff.""So, do you have any indication that President Trump might endorse you?" Johnson wondered."Well, I know that John Cornyn has suggested that Susie Wiles, as [Trump's] chief of staff, is behind this. I don't know what's true or not true," Paxton replied.

Rep. Jim Himes (D-CT), the top-ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, warned Thursday about what President Donald Trump's next moves in the war against Iran could be. Himes told CNN anchors Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown that after the Senate rejected a resolution to limit Trump's war powers without congressional permission—a measure also expected to fail Thursday in the House—lawmakers were now in a difficult position regarding military action against Iran, with few options remaining. "There's a really kind of dark answer to that question, which and the answer to that is, and I hate to be this blunt and honest with the American people, but it's true. The answer to that question is nothing," Himes said. "Even if the war powers resolution were to have passed the Senate and to have passed the House, there is no reason to believe that Donald Trump would have taken that into account."Himes argued that Trump would have vetoed the resolution regardless of what lawmakers said. He predicted what Trump would do. "And so what eventually is going to end this war is what we're beginning to see already, just in the fourth or fifth day of this war, gasoline prices are already up $0.22 a gallon on average across the country," Himes said. "They are now higher than they were when Donald Trump took office the stock market is stumbling today. And by the way, I should have put this first. But most tragically and most importantly, there are now six Americans dead in this war. Eventually the pressure of those losses in the context of the administration's inability to tell us how this ends, you know how or when this ends, eventually the American people are going to be even more sour on this war than they already are now. And I suspect what happens then is that Donald Trump just pulls the plug, declares victory, and walks away."And despite reports that Iranian military forces have weakened, that doesn't mean they're done fighting, Himes explained. "There's no question that the Iranians are being very badly hit right now most of their navy is gone," Himes said. "There's lots of almost MTV-quality videos that you can watch on an hourly basis being released by the White House and by the Department of Defense. The reality is that the Iranians maintain pretty shocking military capability and asymmetric capability. That's what we, you know, the fancy term for the terrorists that they have for generations now been planting in the region, and scarily outside of the region."He also described another troubling concern for American intelligence involved in the strikes against Iran — and how a move by the FBI could be putting troops at potential risk. "As this regime gets increasingly desperate, they are going to reach for those tools at a time, by the way, when the FBI has fired the people who are Iran counterterrorism experts and whatnot," Himes said. "So it is a very, very real danger. And I just pray that this administration sobers up, takes their eye off of their constant need to praise this president, and actually gets into the business of defending and standing for the security of the American people."

Donald Trump has reportedly scrambled energy experts to find an alternative source of energy following the strikes on Iran. While some experts believe a hold-up in the Strait of Hormuz supply line will be temporary, other insiders are concerned there could be longer-term consequences at play. Nobel Prize winner Paul Krugman suggested the route, which has been used by the US and other Western nations as a supply line through the Persian Gulf, could be cut off for longer than the few days industry experts were predicting. Ben Lefebvre, writing in Politico, noted two energy industry insiders had been asked by the president's team to find a solution - and fast.Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, reportedly asked advisers to bring the president ideas on how to tackle the rising oil price and the subsequent effect this will have on gasoline prices. One insider said the administration had been "looking under every rock for ideas on improving energy prices, especially gasoline prices" for a solution. The unnamed executive went on to say that current energy heads of staff are being "screamed at to find some good news" on the situation. "Folks are scrambling for announcements and messaging to counter the narrative," they added. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said, "I think it speaks to why this action was so necessary that ultimately the energy industry is going to benefit from the president’s actions with respect to Iran, because Iran will no longer be controlling the Strait of Hormuz and restricting the free flow of energy."Insiders also confirmed a handful of ideas had been pitched to the president or members of his team, but that none were considered viable at this time. Lefebvre wrote, "Some of the ideas the administration is considering include a temporary holiday on the gasoline tax, people familiar with the discussions said. But that might not bring immediate relief since it would require action from Congress. And there’s no guarantee oil refiners and gas stations would pass the savings along to drivers."Some administration officials have also floated using the U.S. military to defend energy infrastructure in the Middle East. But that idea isn’t likely to win over Saudi Arabian officials, who are cool on it given the sensitivities around American boots on the kingdom’s soil."

Pacific island says the US weakened its proposal to advance a key climate ruling but vows to hold major polluters accountableThe Trump administration’s attempt to sink a UN resolution demanding countries act on the climate crisis has caused cuts to the proposal but hasn’t entirely killed it, according to the tiny Pacific island country spearheading the effort.The US has demanded that Vanuatu, an archipelago in the south Pacific, drop its UN draft resolution that calls on the world to implement a landmark international court of justice (ICJ) ruling from last year that countries could face paying reparations if they fail to stem the climate crisis. Continue reading...

As of this writing, six American troops are dead. Donald Trump says there will be more. More than 1,000 Iranians are dead, and there will certainly be many more. The map of the Middle East is a sea of fire under “Operation Epic Fury,” and only 27 percent of the U.S. public is onboard.So the real question isn’t whether “we” can win this war. It’s how fast Trump will claim he already has.Trump has been crowing that while Iran allegedly tried to kill him three times, he “got Khamenei on the first try.” Secretary of “War” Pete Hegseth called that “guts.” It isn’t guts. It’s the reckless bragging of a man treating a potential world war like the season finale of a reality series: blow everything up, grab the ratings, cancel the show before the numbers tank and the shark is jumped.But in Iran, the shark is taking a big bite out of the truth about why the war began.The trap Trump has walked into is staggering. He explicitly demanded regime change. Every historian and military strategist will tell you regime change has never happened without boots on the ground. Trump ruled that out. Sort of. It depends on the day.Utterly distasteful and offensive, Trump said he doesn’t get “the yips” about troops on the ground. The reason his predecessors, like anyone with a soul, got the yips was because they were risking American lives. What a heartless jerk.The most dishonest person in the world keeps making half-assed promises. As each falls apart, he makes another.We are almost a week in, and the reasons America went to war remain embarrassingly murky. Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed it was to neutralize an imminent threat to Israel. Trump said he was the one who pushed Benjamin Netanyahu, not the other way around. Hegseth, equally untruthful and idiotic, has his own theories.Americans were disillusioned and confused from day one. Now they’re getting angrier by the hour. There is no justification for this war. There never was. There never will be. And that’s becoming horrifically obvious.Meanwhile, the dominoes are falling. Gas prices are spiking. Economists warn that petroleum-linked inflation is just getting started. Refineries are destroyed. The Dow is spooked.Trump built his entire political identity on economic and no-war braggadocio: “best economy ever,” “I alone can fix it,” “no World War III,” “no forever wars.” Now he owns an oil shock and a war he started that has the makings of World War III.In May 2003, just six weeks into the Iraq War, George W. Bush famously strutted onto the USS Abraham Lincoln under a “Mission Accomplished” banner. He wanted to project strength, declare an end to major combat operations, and pivot to domestic politics before a long, bloody insurgency exposed the whole enterprise as a catastrophe built on lies.The same false premises are in play now: imminent threat, weapons of mass destruction, regime change, a grateful population to welcome Americans as liberators. Those premises collapsed. Wars started on false pretenses never end well.Trump is too ill-informed, and too reckless, to understand.There can be little doubt he is preparing his own “Mission Accomplished” moment — except he is more selfish, less humble, and has even less patience than Bush. To be clear, Bush was never known for humility. But compared to Trump, he looks like a pussycat.Trump will surely declare “victory” soon, not because the threat is eliminated but because the markets are screaming, the oil industry is hemorrhaging, and Trump sees giant losses on the horizon, along with the prospect of getting tied down trying to fix a country he broke.The only difference is that Trump won’t bother with a flight suit. He’ll do it in front of those flimsy black curtains that doubled as a Situation Room at Mar-a-Lago.Fresh off his attack on Venezuela, Trump wants the world to see him as the man who makes strongmen disappear, the most imperial of imperialists.But just as the Iraq justifications shape-shifted from WMDs to spreading democracy when the WMDs turned out not to exist, so “Operation Epic Fury” has mutated in real time from stopping an “imminent nuclear threat” to personal score-settling by a president who treats foreign policy like a drive-by shooting.Trump will simply “kill you,” as Hegseth might say. Make a mess, speed away, let someone else clean it up.Trump didn’t go to war for America. He went to war for Trump. And now he has to get out fast — for Trump.After September 11, Bush had the benefit of 90 percent public approval. He had goodwill. Trump is starting his war in the basement, with an approval rating at a record low, 36-39 percent, and 60 percent disapproval. With his war, he barely has a quarter of Americans behind him.Rising body counts will not move Trump the way they would move a normal president. What will move him are the Dow and oil futures. When the financial fallout becomes intolerable, he will declare victory and bolt, leaving a destabilized Middle East to deal with the wreckage he made.Trump has zero patience. He cannot stand to be associated with losing. A grinding, inconclusive Middle East war is the definition of losing — slowly, expensively, in public.When his lies grow old and the polls get even worse, Trump will sprint for his “Mission Accomplished” banner. He will announce that he has eliminated Iran’s nuclear program, degraded its drone and missile capabilities, avenged three assassination attempts, and secured a historic win.Then he will leave Israel alone in the fight, the region in flames, the cleanup to whoever’s still standing.Trump doesn’t care about our soldiers. He doesn’t care about peace, stability, or the families of the six Americans already killed and the others to follow. He cares about one thing: how Donald Trump looks when “the show” comes to an end.John Casey was most recently Senior Editor, The Advocate, and is a freelance opinion and feature story writer. Previously, he was a Capitol Hill press secretary, and spent 25 years in media and public relations in NYC. He is the co-author of LOVE: The Heroic Stories of Marriage Equality (Rizzoli, 2025), named by Oprah in her "Best 25 of 2025.”

Reports of attack on US registered tanker in Gulf lifts crude by 3% to $84 a barrel as gas price also starts to climbBusiness live – latest updatesMiddle East crisis – live updatesStock markets have rebounded in Asia after days of heavy losses driven by the war in the Middle East, but oil and gas prices have continued to climb amid disruption to supplies.South Korea’s KOSPI, which posted its biggest ever fall on Tuesday of 12%, rose by almost 10% on Thursday, while Japan’s Nikkei climbed by 1.9%. MSCI’s Asia-Pacific index excluding Japan jumped by 2.7%. Continue reading...