MEME WARFARE

Iran Trolls Trump’s War Brag With Fake Leaked Texts

Even as the conflict escalates and markets lurch, the war narrative is increasingly playing out in memes.

Iran has struck the heart of the White House with a meme that trolls President Donald Trump.

In further evidence that the information war has spiraled into parody, an account tied to the Iranian embassy in South Africa posted a mock exchange between the 79-year-old president and, well, himself.

The X post, shared Tuesday, was captioned, “Good and productive talks with Iran” 😎—a sly reference to recent claims from President Donald Trump that diplomacy was underway to end the war. Iran, however, was quick to dismiss those claims.

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The image depicts a fake text conversation in which the sender is labeled “President of PEACE (You).” This parodies the title Trump has given himself, regardless of his penchant for starting wars. In a one-sided “exchange,” the fictional president writes: “Hey Ayotollah. Let’s talk about the Straight for sure.

He adds: “Ooh, that’s good to hear.”

“I will cease attacks for 5days,” he says, before signing off with a familiar flourish: “thanks for your attention to this matter.”

The meme parodies Trump’s own messaging on the conflict, which has veered sharply within days.

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After warning on Saturday that he would destroy Iran’s power plants if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened within 48 hours—a threat that sent markets into a frenzy—the president abruptly shifted course. Hours before the deadline, Trump announced a five-day pause on strikes, citing “very good and productive conversations.”

“If it goes well, we’re going to end up settling this. Otherwise, we just keep bombing our little hearts out,” Trump told reporters.

Iran quickly rejected the premise of any talks. An unnamed official told state media, “There is no direct or indirect contact with Trump. He retreated after hearing that our targets would be all power plants in West Asia.”

The disconnect has not gone unnoticed among allies. A Middle East-based diplomatic source told the Daily Beast that some Gulf partners were caught off guard by the sudden pause, interpreting it less as a diplomatic breakthrough and more as an attempt to cool oil prices and stabilize markets.

“Operation Epic Fury,” launched at the end of February, successfully took out Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader. Many Iranians celebrated the end of his authoritarian regime, but Israeli and U.S. strikes have continued to hit Iran, and the death toll is mounting. The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) estimates that almost 1,500 civilians have died. This includes more than 200 children killed in a strike on a school.

The White House thinks this is fertile ground for online jokes. It has leaned heavily into meme content during the war, despite the fact that the families of 13 service members are trying to get used to life without their slain loved ones. As the conflict stretches on, official accounts have pumped out a steady stream of videos blending real strike footage with scenes from movies, sports clips, and video games.

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The approach has drawn criticism at home and abroad. Even some Trump supporters have balked at the tone, while critics argue the posts trivialize a deadly conflict.

Inside the administration, however, aides have openly celebrated the reach. One senior official told Politico the videos generated more than 3 billion impressions in just four days. Another described the effort in blunt terms: “We’re over here just grinding away on banger memes, dude.”

Iran, too, is on board, even as its cities and towns are being leveled by bombs. In an attempt to needle Trump amid his Epstein file-related woes, Iran trolled him with an AI-generated propaganda movie featuring demented Lego-style figurines wreaking revenge for U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on the country.

It is the second time Iranian state media has used toy-like figures in propaganda, following a similar video released after U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities last year.

It is unclear what the reaction from Iranians to their government’s meme warfare is, but in the U.S., even Trump supporters have lamented the White House’s involvement.

Kristopher Purcell, who served in the White House communications department in ​the run-up to Bush’s 2003 invasion of Iraq, called it the“gamification” of conflict.

“It’s an insane way to do things,” he said.

When reached for comment, White House spokesperson Anna Kelly ignored the specifics of our request and attacked the Daily Beast. The red-headed former beauty queen, 28, has never worked outside of Republican politics, going straight from university into media roles with Republican Congressman Derrick Van Orden and then the Republican National Committee.

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