Pro-Iran groups have used AI to troll Trump and try to control the war
narrative
[April 09, 2026]
By SAM McNEIL
Pro-Iran groups have used artificial intelligence to create slick
internet memes in English to try to shape the narrative during the war
against the U.S. and Israel and foster opposition to it.
Analysts say the memes appear to be coming from groups linked to the
government in Tehran and are part of a strategy of leveraging its
limited resources to inflict damage on the U.S., even indirectly. That
includes how Iran has used attacks and threats to control the flow of
traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and maintain a stranglehold on the
world’s economy. A ceasefire raised hopes Wednesday of halting
hostilities, but many issues remained unresolved.
“This is a propaganda war for them,” Neil Lavie-Driver, an AI researcher
at the University of Cambridge, said, referring to Iran. “Their goal is
to sow enough discontent with the conflict as to eventually force the
West to cave in, so it is massively important to them.”
It's not the first time memes have been used in a conflict, and they
have evolved to include AI images in recent years. AI imagery bombarded
Ukrainians after the Russian invasion in 2022. Last year, the term “AI
slop” became widely used to describe the glut of imperfect images posted
online during the Israel-Iran war to try to destroy the country’s
nuclear program.
In the conflict that began Feb. 28 with joint U.S.-Israel strikes, the
memes have used well-honed cartoons that lambast U.S. officials.
The memes are steeped in American culture
The memes are fluent not just in English but in American culture and
trolling. Published on various social platforms, they are racking up
millions of views — though it’s not clear how much influence they have
had.
They have portrayed U.S. President Donald Trump as old, out of step and
internationally isolated. They have referenced bruising on the back of
Trump's right hand that prompted speculation about his health;
infighting in Trump's MAGA base; and U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete
Hegseth’s fiery confirmation hearing, among other things.
“They’re using popular culture against the No. 1 pop culture country,
the United States,” said Nancy Snow, a scholar who has written more than
a dozen books on propaganda.
The pro-Iran images circulating online include a series that uses the
style of the “Lego” animated movies. In one, an Iranian military
commander raps, “You thought you ran the globe, sitting on your throne.
Now we turning every base into a bed of stone,” as Trump falls into a
bullseye built of “Epstein files,” the U.S. government’s investigative
records on disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey
Epstein.
Analysts believe groups making the memes are cooperating with the
government
The animations show levels of sophistication and internet access that
indicate ties to government offices, said Mahsa Alimardani, a director
of WITNESS, a human-rights group working on AI video evidence.
“If you’re able to have the bandwidth needed to generate content like
that and upload it, you are officially or unofficially cooperating with
the regime,” she said — pointing to severe restrictions Iran has imposed
on the internet as part of a crackdown on nationwide protests earlier
this year.
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An AI-generated animation created by a pro-Iran studio and depicting
an Iranian man grilling four U.S. aircrafts like a kebab over a
campfire is seen on a computer screen in Brussels, Wednesday, April
8, 2026. (AP Photo/Sam McNeil)
State media has reposted some of the memes, including some from the
account behind the “Lego”-style videos, Akhbar Enfejari, which means
Explosive News.
Akhbar Enfejari described themselves as Iranians producing and
uploading from within Iran in an effort to disrupt decades-long
dominance of Western control of the airwaves.
“They’ve long dominated the media landscape and, through that power,
imposed narratives on many nations,” the group told The Associated
Press on the messaging app Telegram. “But this time, something feels
different. This time, we’ve disrupted the game. This time, we’re
doing it better.”
After the ceasefire was announced, Akhbar Enfejari posted: “IRAN
WON! The way to crush imperialism has been shown to the world. Trump
Surrendered.”
In addition to the memes coming from pro-Iran groups, Iranian
government accounts have trolled the U.S., including in a post
Wednesday from Iran's Embassy in South Africa that said, “Say hello
to the new world superpower,” with a picture of the Iranian flag.
Both the U.S. and Iran declared victory after agreeing to a
ceasefire.
Analysts say the deep grasp of U.S. politics and culture is the
fruit of more old-school methods of propaganda: a decades-long
Iranian government program to promote narratives against the U.S.
and Israel.
“This meme war comes from institutions that are very aware what the
American public is aware of and pop cultural references that can
appeal to them,” Alimardani said.
Messaging from the US and Israel
Analysts say the U.S. and Israel do not appear to be engaging in the
same kind of campaign — and given the restrictions Iran has put on
internet access in the country, getting such messages to ordinary
Iranians would be difficult.
Early in the war, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released
a video that used AI to make it seem like he was speaking in Farsi,
in which he urged Iranians to overthrow their government. The White
House has published a steady stream of memes, but those are aimed at
a U.S. audience and feature clips from American TV shows and sports.
The U.S. government-run Voice of America, which for decades beamed
news reports to many countries that had no tradition of a free
press, does still broadcast in Farsi, though it is has been
operating with a skeleton staff since Trump ordered it shut down.
“This world order is really changing overnight and the U.S. is not
going to end up necessarily as the state that everybody listens to,”
Snow said.
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