{"id":44,"date":"2026-05-26T23:42:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:42:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=44"},"modified":"2026-05-26T23:42:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T23:42:12","slug":"just-drinking-the-kool-aid-inside-the-white-house-divide-on-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=44","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Just drinking the Kool-Aid\u2019: Inside the White House divide on Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Nearly one month after the U.S. began strikes on Iran, President Donald Trump is sending thousands of troops to the Middle East to potentially fight in a war he said he has \u201calready won.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more MaddowBlog<\/a><\/p>\n

That contradiction has frustrated some senior White House aides and outside allies, three of whom spoke to MS NOW about the president\u2019s public messaging. They described it as confusing, internally inconsistent and increasingly detached from battlefield reality.<\/p>\n

Trump calling the war already won is \u201cmostly hyperbole,\u201d said a senior White House official granted anonymity to speak candidly about the administration\u2019s thinking. \u201cIt\u2019s part [of Trump] just wanting to declare victory and move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

That impulse, the official said, has become more pronounced in recent days.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Trump] is getting a little bored with Iran,\u201d the official said. \u201cNot that he regrets it or something \u2014 he\u2019s just bored and wants to move on.\u201d<\/p>\n

A second White House official who was granted anonymity for the same reason said that Trump has begun to \u201cmove on\u201d from the conflict and has started shifting conversations and personal focus toward the economy, domestic issues and the upcoming midterm elections.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The White House\u2019s public communications have suggested a similar detachment, presenting the conflict less as an ongoing war with human lives at stake and more as a cultural moment that generates online content.<\/p>\n

That has emerged as a major, if mostly quiet, point of dissension among White House staffers and Trump allies.<\/p>\n

In the past few weeks, official White House social media accounts have leaned on internet memes to flippantly promote the conflict, using clips from movies like \u201cIron Man\u201d and \u201cTop Gun,\u201d characters from cartoons like \u201cSpongeBob SquarePants\u201d and rap music overlaid on footage of unclassified videos of bombs striking Iranian targets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe war videos are cringe and disrespectful and gross,\u201d the senior White House official told MS NOW. \u201cIt makes me feel embarrassed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to a request for comment, White House communications director Steven Cheung said the \u201cmemes will continue and there isn\u2019t a damn thing this person can do about it because they have no influence. This person clearly isn\u2019t in the room and is a low-level staffer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Republican voters believe things that aren\u2019t true. That\u2019s a problem for the GOP.<\/a><\/p>\n

Others who spoke with MS NOW questioned the communications strategy.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe social media post of bombs being dropped, OK, cool, but what do we get out of this?\u201d added a former official in the Trump White House, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly.<\/p>\n

The second White House official offered a defense of the approach, drawing a distinction between the administration\u2019s two communications channels: official accounts, which in Trump\u2019s second term have prioritized viral content over public information, and the president\u2019s Truth Social feed, which the official characterized as the more substantive policy and communications forum.<\/p>\n

That official also said there is a clear \u201cdivide\u201d among White House officials on how to approach messaging as the war drags on.<\/p>\n

Trump prematurely claiming victory despite the evidence is not new. He employed a version of it after the 2020 election, making unsubstantiated claims about massive voter fraud to explain his loss to Joe Biden. But allies say it lands differently in a wartime context.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has learned he can tell the American people his feeling, and, with enough time, the American people will accept his lie,\u201d the former Trump White House official said. \u201c<\/em>Just telling us the war is won isn\u2019t good enough. We need to see it; we need to feel it.\u201d<\/p>\n

But for Americans to feel the war has ended, it very likely has to actually end \u2014 something that has proved difficult, as some top administration officials push for the military campaign to escalate, and as Iranian officials have publicly rejected any suggestion that they are ready to negotiate.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Trump posted on Truth Social that the \u201cIranian negotiators are very different and \u2018strange.\u2019\u201d Trump continued that \u201cthey are \u2018begging\u2019 us to make a deal.\u201d Iranian regime officials have repeatedly denied that claim.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All current and former Trump White House officials who spoke with MS NOW under anonymity voiced that they do not share these same opinions within White House walls for fear of negative repercussions.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many people are afraid of being on the outs that they are just drinking the Kool-Aid and going along with it,\u201d said the former White House official.<\/p>\n

Read more The NFL ought to throw a flag on the Pentagon. Here\u2019s why it probably won\u2019t.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Senior aides describe a widening internal divide over a conflict the president has grown bored with \u2014 and a communications strategy some call embarrassing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":43,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Just drinking the Kool-Aid\u2019: Inside the White House divide on Iran - Long Distance Movers USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/longdistancemoversusas.com\/?p=44\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Just drinking the Kool-Aid\u2019: Inside the White House divide on Iran - 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