Ben Stiller has publicly demanded that the White House remove a clip from his 2008 film Tropical Thunder from a government-produced video promoting the Trump administration’s military strike on Iran, calling it “propaganda” and declaring that “war is not a movie.”
Stiller posted his objection on X after a White House video began circulating on social media, featuring clips from a number of major Hollywood movies and TV shows, including Gladiator, Braveheart, Iron Man, Breaking Bad, Deadpooland Top Gun, intercut with real-life footage of drone strikes and ends with a voiceover declaring “flawless victory.”
“Hey White House, please remove the Tropic Thunder clip,” Stiller wrote. “We never gave you permission and 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 a more embarrassing and humiliating thing has ever been produced before by any government in human history. I can somehow undersell it.”
ABC Saturday extra host Nick Bryant asked, “Are there any adults in the White House? Is there any understanding of the gravity and horror of war? This is the frat house not the White House.”
Podcaster Vince Mancini made a pointed historical comparison, questioning why the administration would bother with a supercut of old movies as justification for military action.
