As I scrolled through TikTok, a meme-style video on my For You Page caught my attention. Migos music: ‘walk it like I talk it, walk it like I talk it,’ then President Trump’s voice: “I’m gonna bomb the shit out of ‘em”.
Cut to fighter jets, missiles streaking fire, war footage aestheticized into propaganda porn.
That’s when I noticed the blue verified checkmark. This was posted by the official TikTok of the White House. Yes, the official TikTok of the United States government.
@whitehouse Can’t say he didn’t warn them. 🦅
♬ original sound - The White House
My first reaction was disbelief. It did not read like government communication, more like content you would see from a troll account.
I clicked on the White House profile and went down the rabbit hole. The more I scrolled, the more outrageous it became: Iranian regime officials depicted as bowling pins, a meme of SpongeBob launching a bomb, missile strikes paired with Grand Theft Auto and Mortal Kombat references — all packaging the war as some kind of twisted entertainment.
This should scare you.
Emma Briant, a University of Notre Dame professor specializing in propaganda and information warfare, says the message is blunt: if countries like Iran don’t obey Trump, he will “bomb the shit out of them.”
She argues this message is unusual because it lacks the usual appeals to legitimacy expected from democratic governments.
Briant says the imagery and music reinforce that message by making human life seem frivolous and violence seem fun. “It evokes a video game,” she said. “Americans are heroes and the rest of the world is worthless.”
This is new. I’ve never seen anything like this from an official government account.
I've never really paid attention, maybe because I’ve never had to. Government social media used to be fact-based, routine, tightly controlled and, honestly, pretty stale. I didn't know how much comfort I found in that until now.
That kind of consistency is not accidental. Democratic governments are supposed to communicate in ways that create stability and credibility.
Official accounts should communicate facts clearly, in a way that is responsible and grounded in the seriousness of what they are addressing, not distort war and human suffering through memes and mockery.
@whitehouse STRIKE 💥🦅
♬ original sound - The White House
Briant believes this shift matters beyond domestic politics.
When this kind of messaging comes from an official White House account, it does not just reflect on Trump or his base. It reflects on the United States government.
She warns that this changes how the U.S. is seen by other democracies and “massively impacts trust among allies.”
The problem is not just that the content is offensive. It is that it makes the U.S. government look erratic and illegitimate.
TikTok is one of the most powerful news and information machines in the world, especially for young people. A Pew Research Center report from March 2026 found that 20% of U.S. adults regularly get news from TikTok. Among adults ages 18 to 29, that number rises to 43%.
For many viewers, especially younger ones, this may be a first point of contact with news and politics.
Zicheng Cheng, an assistant professor in the University of Arizona’s School of Journalism who researches TikTok, news and political communication, sees the White House’s approach as a platform-specific strategy.
On TikTok, content that is short and entertaining gets rewarded, and the account leans directly into that style through pop culture references, memes, viral music, video games and sports clips.
Cheng says this makes the content more shareable for younger audiences, and by adopting this entertainment-driven approach, “they meet audiences where they are.”
@whitehouse Justice the American way
♬ original sound - The White House
This has consequences.
Briant warns that “new generations will have an utterly confused perspective on how democratic governments communicate, what is acceptable, and why.”
If official government communication keeps showing up in simplified, emotionally charged, entertainment-first formats, it risks teaching young people that this is what politics is supposed to look like.
Cheng said it may leave them with a shallow understanding of policy, power and how democratic institutions actually work.
It also risks distorting how people understand war.
She warns that when war is packaged with viral sounds, humor and memes, it can blur the line between information and entertainment.
The format is designed to capture attention, but the emotional response it creates can be shallow and short-lived, reducing the gravity of what is being shown.
Briant argues the videos position viewers from the killer's perspective, gamifying violence where “human life is reduced to exploding dehumanized targets: trucks, buildings, not people.” The result is lost empathy, with real violence and human suffering repackaged as a video game.
@whitehouse Coming in hot 🤫
♬ original sound - The White House
Now, strip away the music, memes and edits.
A girls’ primary school at 10:45 a.m. after morning prayers. Backpacks lined up in a hallway, little plastic lunch containers tucked inside cubbies.
Then, in a second, the ceiling is gone. The windows don’t crack so much as blow inward. The sound is so violent it doesn’t register as sound, just pressure and white tearing through the ribs and teeth of tiny bodies, stealing the air before a scream can form.
The air hangs heavy with smoke, chalk dust, and blood.
Blown clear across the rubble lies a light-up sneaker—its rainbow LEDs flickering weakly in a playground she’ll never run across again. After the dust settles and sirens begin, her mother is held back at the gate, screaming her daughter’s name at a doorway that now opens onto nothing.
On Feb. 28, 2026, Shajareh Tayyebeh girls’ school in Minab, Iran, was destroyed in a U.S. airstrike. 168 children are dead.
Thousands of innocent civilians have died and thousands are suffering as you read this. More will die.
The next time you watch one of those videos, think of them.
This is the reality behind “bomb the shit out of ‘em.”
