Ben Stiller publicly asked the White House to remove a clip from his 2008 film. Tropic Thunder Excerpt from a government-produced video promoting the Trump administration’s military strikes against Iran, calling it “propaganda” and declaring that “war is not a movie.”
Stiller posted his objection to X after a White House video began circulating on social media, featuring clips from a series of major Hollywood films and TV shows, including Gladiator, Brave heart, Iron Man, Break the bad, dead PoolAnd Top Gun, interspersed with actual footage of drone strikes and ending with a voiceover declaring “flawless victory”.
“Hey White House, please delete the Tropic Thunder music video,” Stiller wrote. “We never gave you permission and we have no interest in being part of your propaganda machine. War is not a movie.”
The video sparked immediate and widespread backlash online.
Journalist Séamus Malekafzali wrote: “I don’t think anything more embarrassing and humiliating has ever been produced before by a government in the history of mankind.
ABC Extra Saturday Host Nick Bryant asked: “Are there adults in the White House? Is there an understanding of the seriousness and horror of war? It’s a brotherhood, not the White House.”
Podcaster Vince Mancini made a pointed historical comparison, questioning why the administration would bother with a supercut of old movies to justify military action.
