Amid the war in Iran, Pope Leo XIV this week urged journalists to use their platforms to “to show the suffering” rather than treating it like “a video game,” which the Trump White House has done in a series of social media posts.

The pope — the first from the U.S. — did not mention Iran or President Donald Trump by name while speaking with the staff of an Italian TV network on Monday, March 16.

“Always, but especially in the dramatic circumstances of war such as those we are experiencing, information must guard against the risk of turning into propaganda,” he said, according to the Vatican’s news service.

“And the task of journalists, in verifying the news so as not to become a mouthpiece for those in power, becomes even more urgent and delicate — I would say essential,” Leo, 70, continued.

He said that reporters have the power to “show the suffering that war always brings to populations, to show the face of war, and to tell it through the eyes of the victims so that it does not turn into a video game.”

In the weeks, since war with Iran broke out after a series of U.S. and Israeli strikes, the White House has highlighted some military operations through post on social media that compare the strikes to video games like the Grand Theft Auto franchise and other pieces of media.

The posts have been controversial. ABC News called them “hype videos.”

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Criticizing Trump more broadly, New York Democratic Rep. Pat Ryan said on CNN that the president “continues to act and behave as if this is some sort of a video game. It’s disgraceful.”

In a statement, a White House spokeswoman tells PEOPLE, in part, “Under the decisive leadership of President Trump, America’s heroic warfighters are meeting or surpassing all of their goals under Operation Epic Fury. The legacy media wants us to apologize for highlighting the United States Military’s incredible success.”

The administration has defended the war as an effort to topple a hostile regime with dangerous nuclear ambitions.

Some Iranian propaganda has also invoked pop culture: A video on Iranian TV made with artificial intelligence used the Lego style to project defiance in the face of U.S. strikes, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Some 2,000 people have died in the Middle East along with 13 U.S. service members, according to USA Today.