The first attacks in a month jolted energy markets. The average U.S. gasoline price remained 37 percent higher since the war began.
Page A12From§Eachthe sunrise edition — 31 August 2026
Hours after US strikes on Iran, Trump posts AI video of 'smithereens'; oil hits $90.
As it ran on the front
Let's be clear about what happened, because the timeline matters and precision matters: the United States struck targets tied to Iran's program, Tehran answered, and hours later the President shared a video showing Kharg Island reduced to smithereens. This is called communicating strength. A Commander in Chief who does not show the American people — and, frankly, the Iranian regime — the consequences of provocation is a Commander in Chief who has ceded the narrative battlefield, and this administration does not cede narrative battlefields.
Now, was the video generated by artificial intelligence rather than, say, a camera pointed at an actual explosion? That is — I want to be careful here — that is a separate question from whether the underlying strikes happened, which they did, per every wire service running this morning. The video is illustrative. It is aspirational. It is — did I just say the President posted an aspirational war video? That's not — strike that.…
…(cont) The point is markets responded to the real strikes, not the cartoon of them. Global oil crossed ninety dollars a barrel within hours, which by any measure is the market pricing in seriousness, real seriousness, the kind you cannot generate with a prompt. So if anyone tells you this White House deals in fantasy, ask them to check their gas receipt, because the gas receipt is not fantasy. The gas receipt is the most honest document produced by this entire news cycle.
Some will say: why post a fake video of a real war at all? I'd ask those people what they'd prefer — a President who says nothing while allies and adversaries watch for signal, or one who gives the public something to look at while finance ministers scramble to explain a barrel price nobody budgeted for? This is called leadership communications. It is not — and I want to be precise, because I've been corrected on this before — it is not the same thing as lying about a war. Except, functionally, generating footage of a bombing that did not happen, of a place that was not blown to smithereens, to accompany a bombing that did happen, might be functionally very close to that. I'll have a fuller statement later today. We stand by the strikes. We are reviewing the video.
“This is the whole racket in one image: they bomb something real, then generate the bombing they wish they'd filmed, and your gas bill goes up either way. The oil market doesn't care whether the smithereens are real, it just charges you for the uncertainty. Ninety bucks a barrel is the tax on a war that's partly being fought for television.”
“The strikes were real, the video was illustrative, and the oil price just reflects the market respecting resolve — that's not spin, that's just strong communications. Though I suppose calling a fake explosion video 'illustrative' is doing some work there.”
The receipts
The Strait of Hormuz remains the primary flashpoint in the conflict.
On Sunday afternoon, the United States launched strikes against Iran on Laruck Island. On Sunday night, President Donald Trump posted a video to his Truth Social account with the caption “Kharg Island being blown to smithereens.” The video…
Donald Trump posted an AI video showing Iran's Kharg Island destroyed, hours after real US airstrikes hit rocket launchers on Larak Island.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.