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Trump’s cable-news Cabinet tries to sell a war

12 0
08.03.2026

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Trump’s cable-news Cabinet tries to sell a war

Published March 8, 2026 10:30AM (EDT)

Donald Trump has always treated politics like reality television, from counter-programming debates with his own rallies to assigning degrading nicknames to his opponents. Now he is treating war the same way.

In the first week of the U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign against Iran, the Trump administration has revealed something extraordinary about how it intends to wage war: not just with missiles and drones, but with narrative control so aggressive it borders on parody. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth‘s turn at running the most powerful military in human history increasingly resembles one of his “Fox & Friends Weekend” segments. He held only the second Pentagon press briefing since October on Monday, two days into the war. That is not a communications strategy — it is the beginning of a cover-up. 

The obfuscation got even worse on Saturday when a reporter quizzed Hegseth aboard Air Force One. “Did the United States bomb a girls’ elementary school in southern Iran in the first day of the war and kill 175 people?” 

“No, in my opinion, based on what I’ve seen, that was done by Iran,” Trump interjected. 

“Is that true, Mr. Hegseth, that it was Iran who did that?” the reporter followed up. 

“We’re investigating,” Hegseth demurred, before backing Trump’s assumption. “But the only side that targets civilians is Iran.”   

Even some conservative commentators were unsettled by this exchange. Fox News’ Laura Ingraham called the strike “horrific news” and warned that the military would have to do a better job at addressing it publicly.

As Trump’s war with Iran grows more deadly and continues to widen, the........

© Salon