The official X account of The White Home has launched a montage of footage from ‘Operation Epic Fury’, the army offensive it started on February 28 alongside Israel towards Iran. Bizarrely, the montage of torpedoes hitting warships and airstrikes hitting targets truly begins with footage from 2023’s Name of Obligation Fashionable Warfare 3, and CoD references are scattered all through. In response to the video, one of many unique founding builders of Infinity Ward (and thus the Name of Obligation franchise) has described this as unsurprising, claiming that there was beforehand “awkward strain” from father or mother firm Activision to make a recreation “about Iran attacking Israel.”
US President Donald Trump and his administration have already leaned into gaming tradition prior to now when speaking with the American individuals on social media. In response to a viral publish from GameStop final October, through which it declared the ‘console wars’ over, the official White Home account posted an AI-generated picture of President Trump carrying Grasp Chief’s iconic armor from the Halo video games. Much more controversially, on the identical day, the account for the Division of Homeland Safety posted a Halo picture with the caption “Destroy the flood” and the net deal with for its recruitment web page for ICE.
Now, the Trump administration is at it once more, this time utilizing Name of Obligation as its reference level. Within the first few moments of the 65-second video posted to the White Home’s X account, you will see footage taken from 2023’s MW3 displaying a participant calling in an MGB – that is the particular, match-ending scorestreak earned by gamers who obtain 30 consecutive weapon kills with out dying. It is one of many many descendants of the Tactical Nuke killstreak that first appeared in 2009’s Fashionable Warfare 2.
After the MGB has been summoned, the video then reveals precise footage of assaults from ‘Operation Epic Fury’. Nevertheless, you will additionally discover that yellow rating indicators which might be synonymous with the Fashionable Warfare collection have been laid excessive. Two voice traces from in-game announcers will also be heard, saying “We’re profitable this battle” and “We have taken management.” The video has been met with widespread disbelief throughout the Name of Obligation group.
Courtesy of the Purple, White & Blue. pic.twitter.com/kTO0DZ56IJ
– The White Home (@WhiteHouse) March 4, 2026
Nevertheless, former Infinity Ward developer Probability Glasco – who was one of many unique workforce of builders on the studio that made the primary Name of Obligation, and went on to work on a number of extra entries within the collection up till 2014 – says: “This does not shock me.”
“I keep in mind after Activision took over post-Respawn [Entertainment] formation there was a really awkward strain from Activision for us to make the subsequent CoD about Iran attacking Israel,” Glasco says. “Fortunately the overwhelming majority of our devs had been disgusted by the concept and it bought shot down.” Respawn was arrange in 2010 by former Infinity Ward co-founders Jason West and the late Vince Zampella.
Glasco repeats this declare in response to CharlieIntel’s protection of the White Home video. “Enjoyable reality: Activision inspired us to make a CoD about Iran [attacking] Israel after they took over (post-Respawn formation). The devs overwhelmingly stated that is completely nuts and it by no means occurred.”
Whereas the Name of Obligation collection has by no means immediately explored a battle between Israel and Iran, nor has it had a mission set in both nation, it is value noting that 2013’s Name of Obligation Ghosts makes use of the fictional Tel-Aviv Struggle because the unfastened contextual groundwork for the worldwide occasions that occur within the recreation’s marketing campaign. It is steered that this battle noticed the USA assist to defend Israel from unnamed Center Jap nations.
