As Iran war enters its second week, will the media be kinder to Trump? 

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HOUSTON - For millions of Americans, the tragedy of the Iran war hit home on Saturday afternoon as the coffins of six servicemen were received by President Donald Trump at an air force base in Delaware.

The solemn, toned-down coverage of one of the most sensitive moments of war – when the caskets come home – was not shown live on TV channels.

There were no speeches, bagpipes or eulogies in the silent footage released by the White House of the 30-minute ritual. There were no images of grief-stricken family members of the fallen soldiers who were killed when an Iranian drone hit the US command centre in Kuwait.

In 1991, it became US policy to bar the spectacle of flag-draped caskets being broadcast live. The idea was both to let families mourn in private and to prevent the politicisation of the images – a legacy of the Vietnam War era, when uncensored photos fuelled anti-war sentiment.

During the Iraq war (2003-2011), then President George W. Bush stayed away from the arrival of dead soldiers, saying his presence would be a distraction for grieving families.

His successor Barack Obama, who took office in 2009, changed the earlier policy, permitting coverage if the affected families allowed it, and began the practice of being personally present when the bodies arrived.

There was outrage when coverage showed then President Joe Biden repeatedly checking his watch between salutes for 13 service members who died in a terrorist attack as the US withdrew from Afghanistan.

Following protocol, Mr Trump did not speak during the dignified transfer of remains on March 7.

But in brief remarks before the press, also off camera, the President said the US was winning the war “by a lot” and was “not looking to settle”, as he vowed once more to do “whatever it takes”.

“Deaths are a sad part of the war,” he added.

A few hours later, his motorcade was rolling to the Trump National Doral Miami golf resort, the White House press pool reported.

As the Iran war enters a second week, Mr Trump’s love-hate relationship with the press is in full view.

No one can fairly accuse the President of starving the press of war news. He announces all the key points straight from his Truth Social account or during televised press conferences – the strikes that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, the open possibility of sending in ground troops, the demand for “unconditional surrender”, and the snubbing of Britain’s offer to deploy two aircraft carriers.

But the White House has not much liked how the media is treating the news. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has complained that the media has focused on the soldiers killed in Iranian strikes rather than the successes of the US-Israeli operation against the Iranian regime.

“We have taken control of Iran’s airspace and waterways without boots on the ground. We control their fate. But when a few drones get through or tragic things happen, it is front-page news,” Mr Hegseth said at a March 4 press conference. “I get it – the press only wants to make the President look bad, but try for once to report the reality,” he said.

Mr Trump’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt has lashed out, particularly at CNN, for the same reason.

Veteran war correspondents say the Pentagon has dialled back press briefings compared with past administrations, whether Republican or Democratic. And the more Trump-friendly new media outlets often get to ask questions at the briefings while the seasoned reporters cool their heels.

Daily briefings for the media at the State Department’s Foggy Bottom office have been discontinued. Instead, there are press gaggles after milestone developments, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and his senior officials put out their views on X.

As the war unfolds, however, the media landscape may be tilting in Mr Trump’s favour. 

Two days before the strikes began on Feb 28, Netflix dropped its bid for Warner Bros Discovery, which owns a storied media empire that includes CNN, the left-leaning TV news network often castigated by the President.

This paves the way for the control of CNN to pass into the hands of Paramount, which is controlled by Trump allies, the father-and-son duo Larry and David Ellison. Paramount chief executive David Ellison reportedly assured Trump officials in private in 2025 that he would make sweeping changes to CNN, reported The Wall Street Journal when the US$110 billion (S$140 billion) takeover battle was heating up in late 2025.

Paramount already controls CBS, one of America’s oldest major broadcasting networks, where a more conservative editor-in-chief, Ms Bari Weiss, was appointed in October 2025.

And in January 2026, one of Paramount’s pivotal financial backers, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, acquired a 15 per cent stake in the joint venture that owns the US operations of the wildly popular TikTok. 

In sum, with the likely addition of CNN to their portfolio of media holdings before the year ends, Mr Trump’s allies will come to have unprecedented influence on what Americans watch and scroll. 

The ownership shuffles come at a time when Trump-friendly tech billionaires already control other social media platforms, with Mr Elon Musk owning X and Mr Mark Zuckerberg having Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. 

Another tech billionaire, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, who owns The Washington Post, has put the newspaper on a more conservative path, asking it to emphasise “personal liberties and free markets” in its coverage.

While the relationship between the press and the President is often testy, Mr Trump has been unusual in the extent to which he has taken news outlets to court. 

He sued CBS for more than US$10 billion, alleging it edited an interview to favour his 2024 rival Kamala Harris. This was settled by Paramount in July 2025 for US$16 million.

In another lawsuit, Disney/ABC settled with him for a US$15 million donation to Mr Trump’s library plus US$1 million in legal fees. Pending in the courts are his cases against The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, the BBC and the Pulitzer board.

Conservative Fox News’ average primetime viewership stands at around 2.6 million, beating the more liberal CNN and MSNBC, which together draw just over one million cable news watchers.

The news shows on ABC, NBC and CBS – the main national network broadcasters, which tend to be left of centre – pull in six million to eight million viewers every night.

Perhaps emboldened by what he perceives as victories on the world stage, Mr Trump has even ended his boycott of the White House Correspondents’ Dinner, during which presidents and their policies are fair game for biting humour-laced criticism.

He has framed his past absences at the glitzy annual fixture, also attended by celebrities, as a boycott “because the press was extraordinarily bad to me”. Now, he has said, the April 25 event will be the “hottest dinner ever”.

“In honour of our Nation’s 250th Birthday, and the fact that these ‘correspondents’ now admit that I am truly one of the Greatest Presidents in the History of our Country, the G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time), according to many, it will be my Honour to accept their invitation, and work to make it the Greatest, Hottest, and Most Spectacular Dinner, Of Any Kind, Ever!” he said in a Truth Social post on March 3.

Mr Trump is adept at setting the agenda and forcing others to react. Whether he can carry public opinion on the Iran war remains an open question.