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

Trump’s cable-news Cabinet tries to sell a war
The Trump administration’s media strategy on Iran reveals as much about the conflict’s weaknesses as its goals

By Sophia Tesfaye
Senior Writer
Published March 8, 2026 10:30AM (EDT)


(Salon) 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.

....(snip)....

As Trump’s war with Iran grows more deadly and continues to widen, the Pentagon’s communications strategy is not even pretending to care about transparency, persuasion or even basic credibility. Since he took office in January 2025, Hegseth has done his best to turn independent journalism into a branch of the Defense Department’s communications office. Meanwhile, the people responsible for explaining military action have behaved less like public officials and more like pundits auditioning for the next viral clip.

....(snip)....

Before being tapped on Thursday to replace Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin spent the week across all of cable news trying to sell the president’s war of choice. Speaking to Fox News, Mullin argued Trump was right not to brief Congress ahead of attacking Iran because “you just simply can’t trust” all of the elected representatives, specifically naming Reps. Rashida Tlaib of Michigan and Ilhan Omar of Minnesota. Both are Muslim. In another appearance, Mullin pivoted seamlessly from discussing military action abroad to denouncing immigration policies at home, treating the two issues as part of the same broader struggle for national survival. ...................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2026/03/08/trumps-cable-news-cabinet-tries-to-sell-a-war/