Let's start with the thing that should genuinely terrify everyone regardless of politics: the President of the United States is making decisions about an active war based on a carefully curated 2-minute highlight reel of explosions. That's not a metaphor. That's not spin. That's what NBC News reported this week, confirmed by three current US officials and one former official.
strike was WRONG
(Pew Research, Mar 26)
handling of the
Iran war (Pew)
killed since the
war started
daily Iran war
"briefing" video
The President Is Watching a Highlight Reel. Not a Briefing.
Every day since the start of the Iran war, US military officials compile a video for Trump. It's about two minutes long. It shows the biggest, most successful US strikes on Iranian targets from the previous 48 hours. Three current US officials described it to NBC News as a series of clips of "stuff blowing up."
That's what the Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces of the United States is being shown about the war he started. A greatest hits compilation. A sizzle reel. Bombs going off. Targets exploding. America winning, winning, winning.
What it doesn't show: Iranian counterattacks. US casualties. Damage to allied infrastructure. The full scope of what Iran is doing in response. The strategic picture. Any of the bad stuff.
And here's the part that makes it even worse: one official noted that Trump's briefings tend to draw "better feedback" from his aides when they focus on US victories. So the people around him have figured out that showing him bad news makes him angry and showing him explosions makes him happy — and they've structured his entire war briefing around that preference. The President of the United States is being managed like a toddler who gets upset when the TV show isn't fun enough.
"We can't tell him every single thing that happens." — Current US official, on Trump's curated Iran war video briefings
The consequences of this aren't abstract. In March, five US Air Force refueling planes were hit in an Iranian strike at Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. Trump wasn't briefed about the strikes. He learned what happened from media reports. The man declaring "we destroyed 100% of Iran's military capability" didn't know that Iran just hit five of our aircraft — and found out from the news, same as the rest of us.
Trump is receiving a curated 2-minute highlight reel of US strikes, confirmed by three current US officials and one former official speaking to NBC News. The briefing deliberately emphasizes successes and omits Iranian actions. Trump was not briefed when Iran struck and hit five US Air Force refueling planes at Prince Sultan Air Base — he learned from media reports. Iran continues conducting strikes across the region. 13 US service members have been killed since the conflict began. The war is in its fourth week with no end in sight despite repeated claims it's "almost over."
SourcesIran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said there was merely "an exchange of messages through intermediaries" — and directly questioned US calls for negotiations, saying Washington's shift in tone amounts to an "acknowledgment of failure" after previously demanding "unconditional surrender." Iran did not accept the US's 15-point peace plan. Iranian officials described the plan as "maximalist." 59% of Americans say the war was the wrong decision (Pew Research, March 16-22, 3,524 adults). 61% disapprove of Trump's handling. 45% say it is not going well.
SourcesThe FCC Is Now Threatening to Pull Broadcast Licenses Over War Coverage.
This one should make every single American — left, right, and center — sit up straight.
On March 14th, FCC Chairman Brendan Carr — a Trump appointee — warned broadcasters that those who "perpetrate fake news and distort the news" must "take the right course" or risk losing their broadcast licenses at renewal. He said broadcasters "must act in the public interest, and if they don't, they will lose their licenses," specifically citing coverage of the Iran war.
Trump said he was "enthusiastic" about Carr's stance. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth piled on, criticizing CNN's war reporting and suggesting networks should be emphasizing "Iranian frustration" instead of reporting what's actually happening.
Let's be crystal clear about what this is: the federal government is threatening to revoke the broadcast licenses of news organizations that report on the war in ways the administration doesn't like. Democratic lawmakers called it unconstitutional censorship and a First Amendment violation. First Amendment lawyers called it a direct attack on press freedom. It is both of those things.
This is not how democracies work. This is how autocracies work. The government starts a war, the war goes badly, and then the government threatens to silence anyone who reports that it's going badly. The playbook is not subtle. It has been used before. It doesn't end well.
The First Amendment prohibits the government from abridging freedom of the press. Using federal licensing power to threaten news organizations over their coverage of a war the government started is a direct attack on press freedom — full stop. Democratic lawmakers condemned it as unconstitutional censorship. The FCC has regulatory power over broadcast licenses — meaning this isn't an empty threat. It's a federal regulator, controlled by a Trump appointee, explicitly threatening to punish news networks for war coverage the administration dislikes. This is textbook authoritarian behavior.
SourcesThe Public Has Seen Enough. Trump's Numbers Are Collapsing.
Pew Research released a survey of 3,524 US adults this week — one of the largest and most methodologically rigorous polls out there. The numbers are damning:
59% say the US made the wrong decision in using military force against Iran. Only 38% say it was right. 61% disapprove of Trump's handling of the conflict. 45% say the military action is not going well. By nearly two-to-one, more Americans say the action will make the US less safe in the long run than safer.
A Fox News poll released March 25th showed Trump's overall approval among registered voters at 41%. His approval among Republicans dropped to 84% — his lowest of the second term, down from 92% a year ago. Even his own base is starting to crack.
"Trump's approval among Republicans dropped to 84 percent, his lowest level of the second term, down from 92 percent last March." — Fox News poll, March 25, 2026
And Now for Some Actually Good News.
Democrats just flipped a Florida state House seat in Trump's own backyard. Emily Gregory defeated Trump's endorsed candidate Jon Maples in Florida's 87th district — the same district where Mar-a-Lago sits — by over two percentage points in a special election on Tuesday.
Gregory ran on affordability, housing, and healthcare. She barely mentioned Trump. She won anyway. In his district. The message voters sent couldn't be clearer: they want solutions, not circus.
"I think it demonstrates where the Florida voter is," Gregory told the press. "They want someone who is focused on solutions and the issues and not focused on the noise."
Democrats have now won or overperformed in a string of special elections since Trump returned to the White House. The midterms are in November. The DCCC is targeting 44 Republican-held districts. Keep that in mind every time you feel like nothing matters.
The Bottom Line on the Iran War.
A president who is watching a 2-minute highlight reel instead of receiving real intelligence briefings is making life-and-death decisions about a war that has already killed 13 Americans and is costing every household in this country at the gas pump.
He claims the war is going great. His own officials confirmed he doesn't know everything that's happening. He claims Iran wants to make a deal. Iran says there are no negotiations. He threatens the press for reporting what's actually going on. The public, by a 20-point margin, says this was the wrong call.
This is not strength. This is not winning. This is a man being managed by the people around him, shown a carefully edited version of reality, and allowed to post on Truth Social about things he doesn't fully understand — while Americans pay $4 a gallon, 13 of our service members are dead, and the FCC threatens to silence anyone who says so.
Keep watching. Keep sharing. Keep the receipts.