On the evening of March 26, 2026, the official White House accounts on X and Instagram posted two unexplained, cryptic videos during an active war with Iran. The first — a four-second smartphone clip of someone's feet — featured a female voice asking, “It's launching soon, right?” with a male voice responding “yes.” It was deleted 90 minutes later. The second showed a black, glitchy screen with iPhone notification sounds and accumulated over 15 million views.
The videos sparked immediate panic. RT (Russian state propaganda) tweeted: “WHITE HOUSE MISTAKENLY POST 'NUKE LAUNCHING SOON'?” — despite zero mention of nukes. The disinformation spread across social media while American troops were actively deployed in the Middle East. One commenter wrote: “The official White House account is either a) hacked or b) announcing something through a cryptic message like it's the f---ing WWE.”
The reveal was even worse than the panic. The videos were a marketing teaser for “The White House App” — a smartphone app featuring live-streamed briefings, curated pro-Trump news, executive actions, and an ICE Tip Line for civilians to report immigration-related information to federal authorities.
CNBC reported the app “curates favorable news articles” while omitting unfavorable data — notably rising oil prices since the Iran war and increased costs of ground beef, coffee, and orange juice. The app presents White House press releases as “news.”
This followed the White House “gamifying” the Iran war with social media posts weaving real missile strike footage with Call of Duty video game clips, which actor Ben Stiller criticized: “War is not a movie.”