The United States and Iran are trading attacks for the first time in weeks, just days after the war reached the six-month mark. US CENTCOM says it struck Larak Island where missile launchers were preparing to deploy mines into the Strait…
Page A5From§Eachthe coffee break edition — 31 August 2026
US strikes Iran, Tehran retaliates, dissent leaks, and Trump posts an AI video of the wreckage.
As it ran on the front
Look, the strikes on the Iranian missile launchers near the Strait of Hormuz were surgical, proportional, exactly the kind of restraint this administration has shown from day one — restraint being, you understand, striking first and then — no, that's not — let me start over. The Pentagon acted because Iranian assets threatened American forces, full stop, and if Tehran responded with strikes of its own, well, that's on them, that's always been on them, that is not a two-way — okay it is technically a two-way street, both sides fired, I'll give you that.
As for the leak — and there was a leak, the Pentagon itself says there was a leak, of internal dissent about the strikes, dissent that apparently existed inside the building that ordered them — that is a separate matter entirely from whether the strikes were justified, unless you're the kind of person who thinks internal disagreement inside the Pentagon about a war might be relevant information for the public, in which case, sure, fine, it's relevant.…
…(cont) Now, the video. The Kharg Island video the President posted, showing the island — his words — 'blown to smithereens.' Was it real footage? I want to be very careful here. It was AI-generated. I said that. That is a true sentence I just said out loud. It was a fabricated video of a real airstrike, posted by the President of the United States, hours after real American forces conducted a real strike in a real war zone, and the fake version is the one millions of people saw.
Does that undermine confidence in the official account? I don't see how manufacturing footage of an attack that already happened undermines anything, since the attack did happen, we just — we didn't have the real footage yet, so we — you know what, I'm going to stop talking now.
The bottom line is the strikes happened, the retaliation happened, the dissent got leaked and is apparently a firing offense, and the video the Commander-in-Chief chose to show the country was invented. Every one of those things is true. I just wish they weren't all true on the same day.
“They bomb something real, somebody inside leaks that not everyone thought it was smart, and the guy in charge slaps a fake video on top of the real one because the real one wasn't cinematic enough. That's not fog of war, that's a highlight reel for a war that's still happening. You don't fake the footage of a fight you're winning.”
“The video was illustrative, not evidentiary — a visual aid, like a weather map isn't the actual storm. As for the leaked dissent, healthy debate inside the Pentagon is a sign of a strong process, which is why we're finding out who talked.”
The receipts
Donald Trump posted an AI video showing Iran's Kharg Island destroyed, hours after real US airstrikes hit rocket launchers on Larak Island.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox.
In today's issue: ▪ U.S. strikes Iran after monthlong pause ▪ Trump touts Venezuela oil deal ▪ House back in session ▪ GOP midterm convention frustrations The Pentagon is seething over a Washington Post report that top military leaders…
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.