A recent pro-Iranian propaganda video shows a tearful Donald Trump, depicted in the shape of a Lego, walking in the rain from a Lego building marked “Strait of Hormuz” to a Lego limousine, where he drinks a Lego Diet Coke and cuddles with a young Lego girl with blonde pigtails. The scene is accompanied by a driving bassline beneath a melody that evokes schoolyard taunts. “Look in the mirror/Tell me what you see/Big ego shattered/False reality.” In the foreground is a taco that references the popular meme “Trump always chickens out.”
It’s a production company called Explosive Media. Customers include the Iranian governmenthas created dozens of AI-generated videos like this since the start of President Trump’s war against Iran, garnering millions of views across social media platforms. One video shows a drunk Lego Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth assaulting a Lego woman at a bar. Another depicts Lego versions of Trump and Netanyahu colluding with Satan to blow up a girls’ school.
@explosion media.tiktok You played the last card. Ace is no more. you have been discarded. Latest LEGO style animation: 𝐋𝐈𝐀𝐑 🎭
They are vile, childish and are beating Trump at his own game. Iran is winning the information war, and MAGA has nothing but gratitude.
The most notable advancement, of course, is the company’s use of AI-generated video. Since online foreign influence campaigns first began, high-quality AI tools have become available for creative use. But perhaps what makes the Russian government jealous is the content of the video that allowed Iran to accomplish this kind of engagement. Unlike Russia, which used bot amplification and targeted ad buys to give the impression of grassroots debate, and leaked document dumps to promote speech, Explosive Media hacked into something more valuable: authentic American public opinion.
The shitposters who run the companies seem to understand social media’s most important adage: the most engaging content online is the most offending content. They took the real issue of unpopular wars led by unpopular presidents (both have disapproval ratings in the mid-50s) and created culturally relevant and impactful content that mimicked Trump’s own posting style. It’s no surprise that video performance is good. They create mistrust. A country that bans same-sex relationships appears to be suspending its own moral standards to describe another country’s sitting president as “Bill Clinton’s BJ Queen.” There’s no better clickbait than this.
But none of that would have been possible without President Trump lowering the floor of American political discourse and driving demand for and engagement with such content. President Trump posted an AI-generated video of himself piloting a plane. spray immeasurable amounts of excrement About the Norkings protesters. President Trump posted AI propaganda President Obama arrested in the Oval Office;Trump and his MAGA movement, which has prioritized “possession of liberty” over policymaking. The Trump administration has ruled by and for trolls. Now, Trump and his allies are discovering that their tactics can be replicated on the increasingly lawless internet they have championed, especially if they resonate with the angry masses.
In an era of free speech maximalism that the Trump administration itself has encouraged, few social media platforms are taking long-term action against content. These videos are AI-generated and full of misleading information, but they are, after all, propaganda. Explosive Media’s Lego-style animation means that no one would think that these videos depict real-life events. These are clearly satire and Big Tech platforms needed to figure out another reason to ban them. On YouTube Paused Explosive media for violation of “violent content” and “Spam, Deceptive and Fraudulent Policy.Instagram took action against one of the group’s accounts, but the remaining content remains largely accessible However, on Instagram, X, TikTok, and Telegram.
The government realized its mistake. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently sent the cable He instructed American diplomats to “counter anti-American propaganda.” Unfortunately, they have to deal with a different reality: Rubio gladly fired Many civil servants previously dedicated to the task have disappeared as a result of right-wing conspiracy theories that they were engaged in “conservative censorship.” One wonders if Iran’s next video will feature Lego Rubio arguing with a leopard to the tune of a popular song. I never thought a leopard would eat my face. (Be careful, it’s catchy.)
Mr. Rubio was also prescriptive about where diplomats should direct their counterpropaganda efforts. Elon Musk’s X.comis a “game-changing” tool that could help the State Department achieve its goals, he wrote. The network’s choice strays from the administration’s intended audience. Americans remain the single largest national user group represented on the platform. Mr. Rubio is not directing his diplomats to get their message across to foreign audiences who might be swayed by Iranian memes. He’s worried that Americans will jump or nod to a foreign adversary’s AI-generated Lego music video, so he’s instructed American diplomats to create their own propaganda.
It’s truly a “big ego crushed/false reality.”
Nina Jankowicz is an expert on online disinformation and author of How to Lose the Information War.
