“Well, the last day or so, the White House has been in at least one way treating going to war like a game, frivolously releasing what we will charitably call hype videos about their war,” Tapper said on Friday’s airing of “The Lead.”

After Jake Tapper, criticized White House clips promoting war with Iran, White House communications director Steven Cheung thanked CNN for the coverage of the "banger videos."

Getty Images

The White House sparked outrage online this week after posting real footage of missile strikes against Iran on X, edited together with clips from Call of Duty, a first-person military shooter video game. Over 1,000 Iranian civilians, including children, have been killed in the strikes, according to the Human Rights Activists News Agency, an Iranian rights group based in the U.S.

Despite the backlash, the White House has continued to post more video game references, tapping into Pokémon and Grand Theft Auto to promote the attacks.

In addition to the video game clips, the White House recently posted a montage of cuts from popular films and television shows mixed with real military footage.

“This is the most ‘everyone is 12’ shit I’ve ever seen,” one X user wrote in a post with over 12,000 likes earlier this week, referencing a semi-joking theory that everyone in the country has the worldview of a 12-year-old.

Tapper noted that many of the fictional characters the White House is “lionizing” in its hype videos are “actually bad guys.”

“Walter White from ‘Breaking Bad.’ He’s a sick drug dealer who, spoiler alert, poisoned a child and killed innocent people. Saul Goodman from ‘Better Call Saul,’ twisted criminal enabler who blows up his entire life and gets at least one innocent person killed,” Tapper said. “Kylo Ren from the ’Star Wars’ movies. He embraced the dark side, guys. Spoiler alert. He killed his dad, the beloved character Han Solo.”

“Does the White House even care who the good guys and bad guys are these days?” he continued.

Trump’s White House communications director Steven Cheung responded to Tapper’s comments by thanking CNN “for covering all of our banger videos.”

Earlier this week, Cheung, 43, promoted the videos himself using gamer jargon popularized on messaging platform Discord and streaming website Twitch.

“W’s in the chat, boys!” Cheung wrote in one post, referencing how gamers celebrate a win. He later reacted to CNN coverage of his “W’s in the chat” comment by simply posting, “WWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.”

On his show Friday, Tapper added, “Of course, part of acknowledging the seriousness of taking a country into war is recognizing the immense importance of telling the truth to the American people, but instead, we are seeing this administration lob baseless smears and accusations against anyone who dares to question them.”