Ben Stiller has publicly demanded the White House remove a clip from his 2008 film Tropic Thunder from a government-produced video promoting the Trump administration’s military strikes 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 string of major Hollywood films and television shows, including Gladiator, Braveheart, Iron Man, Breaking Bad, Deadpool, and Top Gun, intercut with real-life drone strike footage, and concluding 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 a 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 somehow might be underselling it.”
ABC Saturday Extra host Nick Bryant asked, “Are there any grown ups in the White House? Is there any understanding of the seriousness and horror of war? This is frat house not White House.”
Podcaster Vince Mancini drew a sharp historical comparison, questioning why the administration would bother with a supercut of old films as justification for military action.
