Wars in recent decades have been largely inconclusive. Who wins and who loses is often a matter of interpretation and perception. And Iran seems to understand this very well. The Iranian government is not only fighting the United States and Israel with missiles, but also with mockery, memes, and, of course, propaganda videos. Amidst the war in the Middle East, a large number of AI videos are being generated, published, and amplified by Iranian media and its affiliated channels. The main theme in all of them is the humiliation of US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The character chosen is Lego Trump, who appears in some of these meme videos. One of the videos also targets: President Trump’s conspiracy, the Epstein file.
Another video, made in the style of a Japanese cartoon, shows a US bomb killing Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, while President Donald Trump breaks into a sweat as he watches the man rise from the rubble to rule Iran. That person was later revealed to be Mojtaba Khamenei, Ali Khamenei’s son and Iran’s new supreme leader.
In another animated video, Iran refers to itself as “Lord of the Straits.” This shows how Iran was able to blockade the Strait of Hormuz against superior American and Israeli firepower and disrupt energy supplies around the world.
These videos are pushed by Iranian state media, proxy profiles, regime-aligned accounts, and even foreign missions to project defiance.
Experts say Iran’s information warfare is unlike anything seen before in similar situations.
Tehran has been embroiled in a weeks-long war between the United States and Israel. They have retaliated with missiles and drones.. However, Iran is fighting from a traditionally weak position. We cannot match the US or Israel in terms of firepower. But that hasn’t stopped it from instilling fear in its adversaries and in the energy and shipping industries it still targets. Information campaigns during the Middle East wars allow Iran to make the war appear costly, risky, and messy. And now it seems that forced President Trump to halt U.S. attacks for five days.
Even as President Trump was talking about negotiations, the Tehran-linked X-handle posted: “Diplomatic mission led by Khorramshahr 4 will hold extraordinary negotiations tonight.”
Some provided visual clues before people figured out who “Mr. Horamshahr-4” was. The Horamshah-4 is an Iranian medium-range ballistic missile used in the war to target Tel Aviv, Israel.
Note the emphasis on “ad hoc negotiations.” Mockery, full force.
If you liked this article, you’ll love this opinion article Wako Taco: President Trump presses for pause due to insider timing By Kamlesh Singh, in-house columnist. Headings are in all caps for a reason.
Back to missiles, memes, and mockery. As if to rub salt in President Trump’s wounds, the Lord of the Straits video showed a Chinese cargo ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz while other cargo ships were stranded. The video suggested that the passage of Chinese ships under Iranian surveillance enriched the country’s coffers.
Iran is focusing on messaging using missiles as well as drones
Iran’s meme machine cannot function without real missiles and drones in the sky. The physical attack gave Iranian propaganda a firm footing.
Iran has retaliated with drones and ballistic missiles since the war began. Recently, it occurred near Israeli nuclear facilities in the towns of Dimona and Arad. A long-range missile was fired at the US-British base in Diego Garcia, more than 2,000 kilometers away. Iran also escalated the war. By hitting the energy infrastructure of the Gulf states Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, etc.
Beyond actual attacks, the Iranian government has threatened Israeli power plants and U.S. facilities in the region that support U.S. forces, while the blockage of the Strait of Hormuz has halted shipping and energy transfers.
Meanwhile, Iran continues to send its global public relations message at full throttle.
But Iran has relied on more than just memes and mockery of Trump in its information warfare.
Iran on Sunday fired a ballistic missile at Israel with a sticker bearing an anti-war statement from Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. ”Of course, this war is not only illegal, but also inhumane.. Thank you, Prime Minister,” the message on the sticker read in both English and Farsi.
Iran’s missile message mocked Americans and Israelis, who are known to write messages to their enemies on the bombs they drop.
Iran uses memes, Lego playing cards, and AI videos. There are also fake videos
Since the war began in the Middle East on February 28, Iran has been actively using AI-generated videos as part of its war propaganda.
In the AI-generated video of Mojtaba Khamenei rising from the rubble of US and Israeli attacks, the creators pack an emotional message. The video begins with a close-up shot of an old man wearing Khamenei-like robes, walking with a cane and a ring on his finger. As he enters the building, a baby toddles toward him. They play, make love, and hug each other. The scene is then cut.
An American missile hits the roof. It was a huge explosion. Amid the rubble, the glowing ring is seen again, but its light begins to fade. Afterwards, President Trump was told by the generals that “Khamenei is dead.” He seems content with fire in his eyes.
But then, a man appears near the rubble. He picks up the ring and puts it on. He raised a tattered Iranian flag planted among the rubble into the sky in anger and defiance. That was Mojtaba Khamenei. Trump got a different message. “Khamenei is back.” In the final scene, countless manhole-like covers open on the ground, and missiles fly out from them, lighting up the night sky with flames.
Another AI-generated animated video shows President Trump dressed like a character from the British children’s television series Teletubbies. Kneeling with folded hands, President Trump implores his European partners, dressed as characters resembling the leaders of NATO members France, Turkey, Britain and Italy, to “help.”
Trump is devastated by a chorus of “no, no, no” from leaders. Sad violin music plays in the background. Trump then got up to leave, but a Teletubbie-esque Emmanuel Macron told him to “shut the door” as he left. As soon as the President of the United States left, the room erupted in laughter.
One of the most talked about examples is Iran’s use of AI-generated Lego-style videos, many of which were published by Iranian media and amplified by Russian news outlets. One such video, shared by Russia Today on X, shows Lego Trump sweating as the Iranian navy attacks tankers and warships and lays mines in the Strait of Hormuz. RT said the footage was published by Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
Another AI-generated propaganda video mocks President Trump’s Jeffrey Epstein files scandal that has dogged his administration. The two-minute video showed Lego figures of President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu risking a world war to distract the world from the Epstein file fiasco, the UK-based Independent reported.
The video, posted by the Tasnim news agency, shows President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu standing next to LegoSatan and looking through a folder titled “Jeffrey Epstein Files.” A Lego character resembling Epstein wearing an orange prison jumpsuit is also seen in the video.
A recent video posted by the Eastern European broadcaster Nexstar TV depicts Iran as the “Lord of the Straits,” which we talked about earlier. An animated video depicting the blockade of Hormuz shows President Trump intermittently displaying speech bubbles in Farsi, his expression continuing to change as the blockade progresses.
Reacting to the video, Lebanese-Australian podcast host Mario Naufal said, “Iran is trolling President Trump with an animated clip centered on the Strait of Hormuz conflict.”
“This war is being fought with missiles and memes,” Naufal added.
Iran’s social media strategy amid its conflict with the United States and Israel is aimed at capitalizing on the war’s unpopularity among President Donald Trump’s own supporters.
A Clemson University study cited by the UK-based Guardian newspaper found that Iran’s influence networks have been repurposed into a single-issue propaganda machine dedicated to the war and projecting Khamenei as a martyr.
“This is completely asymmetric warfare,” Darren Linville, co-director of Clemson University’s Media Forensics Hub, told the Guardian, adding that Iran is using artificial intelligence at a pace “I don’t think anyone has ever seen before to the same degree or in the same way.”
Noticeably, these videos have a consistent theme. President Trump appears to be out of line or compromising. Prime Minister Netanyahu is portrayed as panicking or cornered. Iran’s attacks have been shown to be cleaner, larger and more effective than reported. The key is to create an atmosphere. An atmosphere of ridicule, inevitability, and moral reversal. There, Iran looks like a battle-hardened, wounded, unyielding weakling, while America and Israel look brutal and foolish. For now, Iran is winning the perception battle.
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