A pro-Iranian military commentary account on X posted an AI-generated video this week that worked through the entire list of leaders President Donald Trump had publicly begged for help — and dismissed each one.
French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer sing a children’s song. Japan’s prime minister and South Korea’s president do the same. Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un listen to rap. Then Trump delivers the punchline, crying out: “Why doesn’t anyone help me open the Hormuz?!” The clip carried a single caption: “Trump Asking For Help At #HormuzStrait Crisis!”
Trump has spent much of his presidency weaponizing AI-generated content against his opponents. Now, on day 18 of the US-Israeli war on Iran, a foreign adversary’s propaganda arm was using the same playbook against him.
Nobody’s coming
Trump’s call for a naval coalition has so far produced no public commitments. On Saturday, Trump posted on Truth Social, urging China, France, Japan, South Korea, and the UK to deploy warships to keep the strait “open and safe,” warning that those who refused would be remembered.
The response was muted at best. The EU voted against expanding its naval operations to the strait. China reiterated its call for de-escalation. No country has publicly agreed to send ships.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi moved quickly to frame the ask as a sign of weakness. “The US is now begging others, even China, to help it make Hormuz safe,” he wrote on X. He called on neighboring countries to “expel foreign aggressors.”
About 1,000 oil tankers are currently stranded and unable to pass through the strait, which normally carries roughly one-fifth of global oil supply. Oil prices have climbed to around $100 a barrel. Iran has struck more than a dozen vessels attempting the passage since the war began on February 28.
Democratic Senator Chris Murphy put it more bluntly than most. “On the Strait of Hormuz, they had NO PLAN,” he wrote on X. “Right now, they don’t know how to get it safely back open.”
The troll gets trolled
Trump has made AI-generated mockery a central feature of his communications strategy — arguably more so than any other world leader in history.
Since his January 2025 inauguration, Trump’s Truth Social account and his administration’s official channels have flooded social media with AI-generated content depicting the president as a pope, a Jedi warrior, Superman, a king, and a lion-taming strongman — alongside AI content mocking political opponents, immigrants, and Democratic lawmakers.
The White House posted AI imagery of Senator Elizabeth Warren crying in an Evita costume, former President Obama being handcuffed, and Senator Adam Schiff in restraints. A Ghibli-style cartoon mocked a detained immigrant.
The strategy’s darkest moment came in February 2026, just weeks before the Iran war began, when Trump’s Truth Social account posted a video depicting Barack and Michelle Obama with their faces superimposed on the bodies of apes, set to “The Lion Sleeps Tonight.”
The video remained online for nearly twelve hours before the White House deleted it amid bipartisan outrage — including from Republican Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the upper chamber, who called it “the most racist thing I’ve seen out of this White House.”
The explanation — or excuse — was that a staffer had posted it in error. Trump said he hadn’t seen the offending portion and refused to apologize. “I didn’t make a mistake,” he told reporters on Air Force One.
“Nowhere in the Constitution does it say we can’t post banger memes,” the White House X account posted in July 2025. “The memes will continue,” it followed three days later. White House spokesman Kush Desai described Trump as “the most memetic communicator in presidential history.”
The strategy was always deliberate: AI-generated content allows the administration to build a superhuman persona for Trump, mock adversaries at speed, and generate viral attention — all while maintaining plausible deniability.
“Give me a break. Somebody did it in fun,” Trump said when questioned about the pope image. Karoline Leavitt, asked what Trump meant to communicate with AI posts, offered: “He likes to share memes.”
“Too much explanation is a sign of weakness”
Trump responded to the broader information war with a lengthy Truth Social post accusing Iran of fabricating battlefield victories through AI and feeding them to what he called the “Radical Leftwing Press.”
He claimed images of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier on fire were AI-generated fakes, disputed Wall Street Journal reporting on damaged US refueling planes, and suggested media outlets publishing Iranian claims should face treason charges.
He ended by praising FCC Chairman Brendan Carr for threatening to review broadcast licenses of news organizations he deemed “Corrupt and Highly Unpatriotic.”
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