“If you kill Americans, if you threaten Americans anywhere on Earth, we will hunt you down without apology and without hesitation and we will kill you,” Hegseth says. “We didn’t start this war, but under President Trump, we are finishing it. Their war on Americans has become our retribution against their ayatollah”.

As the words “Paid for by the US Government” appear at the bottom of the screen, the ad’s audio switches back to Trump’s call for regime change in Iran in his announcement of the war in February…

The focus of the ad on speeches and images of celebration that all came in the first three days of the war, when it looked like Iran’s government could collapse, raises questions about why the administration is releasing it as the war enters its seventh month and continues to alienate many of Trump’s supporters.