Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily.

On Wednesday, or Day 5 of the U.S.-led war in Iran, the official X account of the White House uploaded a sizzle reel remixing real-life footage of rocketing cruise missiles with the makeup of Call of Duty. Understanding the contours of governmental policy didn’t previously require fluency in a military-themed first-person-shooter game, so let me talk you through it. Basically, when a player mows down one of their opponents in Call of Duty, a yellow number—indicating points based on their value—appears above the head of the recently slain. Collect enough of those points, and players are granted access to devastating ordinances. (Twenty kills in a row is traditionally rewarded with a tactical nuclear missile.) Accordingly, in the White House video, a 100 integer flashes on-screen when a mortar shell connects with its target, as if the president himself were landing trick shots on his Twitch stream. I also immediately clocked the soundtrack accompanying the video—it’s the instrumental to the impossibly horny Childish Gambino song “Bonfire.”

This is propaganda designed to stimulate the Trump administration’s prime constituency—unsocialized Discord incels, Joker-fied elder millennials, and bloodthirsty Gen Xers—by speaking the language they understand best: a disorienting blend of asserted evil and hammy kitsch. And that seems to be the aesthetic of this adventure in Iran, which will likely be the most significant moment in Donald Trump’s second term. The administration has yet to articulate a clear vision for what it hopes to accomplish, but already this seems to be the sort of war that makes the history books, replete with region-tilting implications that will surely be compiled in........

© Slate