Tom Nichols mocks the Pentagon’s Paul brothers video: “The Iranians are terrified”
National-security writer, retired professor, and former Naval War College and Harvard Extension School instructor, on his X account
“The Iranians are terrified”
Source and context
Original post
About this source
Nichols quote-posted the Defense Department's video captioned "Last Thursday, we welcomed Logan and Jake Paul to the Pentagon to meet with our warriors," making the Pentagon's presentation of the visit the identifiable target of his remark. Read on 2026-09-22 through api.fxtwitter.com, which shows the text, the quoted post, and the timestamp (17:53:25 UTC), consistent with the timestamp decoded from the post ID.
Before the quotation
Nichols quote-posted the Defense Department’s official video showing Jake and Logan Paul speaking from the Pentagon briefing-room lectern, captioned “Last Thursday, we welcomed Logan and Jake Paul to the Pentagon to meet with our warriors.”
After the quotation
His one-line reply was sarcastic; it did not address any specific adversary’s actual reaction, and none was reported.
How this statement is classified
Responding to: The Pentagon’s presentation of Jake and Logan Paul as speakers reflected unserious institutional judgment.
The label describes this statement’s response within the context above.
Why this label?
Relative to the fixed case reference point—the Pentagon’s decision to host and publicly showcase the brothers addressing service members—Nichols’s sarcastic remark implies the opposite of what it states: that no adversary would be intimidated by the display, mocking it as an unserious show of strength. That is a negative judgment of the department’s choice, in the same register as Kinzinger's and DeFranco's brief mocking replies to the same video.
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Was the Pentagon right to host Jake and Logan Paul and have them address service members?
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