Slap bang in the middle of Iran’s capital city, there is a bizarre sight to be seen. Close to Tehran’s Enghelab Square, a huge poster displays an image of President Donald Trump being strangled by multiple hands. The words “Revenge is inevitable” are written below it.
Trump Shown in Coffin
Iran’s Drones That Russia Is Using. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
According to NBC News, this is really nothing new.
A fortnight ago, the same billboard space was occupied by artwork of Trump in a casket.
This poster also contained a death threat against Trump and referenced the Iranian sailors killed on the regime’s IRIS Dena warship.
Almost half a year into a war with the United States and Israel, the Islamic Republic’s propaganda machine is working overtime.
Posters Show White House Ablaze
NBC also reported on a poster displaying the White House on fire under the phrase “blood for blood” in Persian, Iran’s lingua franca.
Street propaganda is commonplace in Iran, but these fresh works often seem a world away from the older revolutionary murals painted on many streets, with some appearing to have been created using AI.
Earlier in August, France 24 wrote that these huge printed banners are now being switched up quickly to keep up with the news cycle.
They reported that the semi-governmental House of Islamic Revolution Designers has been working on many of the posters.
In May, one poster depicted Trump’s mouth sewn shut by a blue rendering of the Strait of Hormuz, alongside the caption “At the breaking point.”
Another showed two Iranians, former IRGC Navy commander Alireza Tangsiri and the early 20th-century military leader Rais Ali Delvari, as giant-like guardians of the waterway. The pair’s figures clearly resemble the Argonath, statues of kings flanking the River Anduin in J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings.
Projecting Propaganda Afar
Writing in The Conversation, an online academic magazine, University of Sydney experts Hamideh Khaleghi Mohammadi and Ali Abbasi explained the domestic and international purpose of these distinct wartime billboards.
They said their dual purpose was “to reinforce a sense of collective identity, national unity and shared emotion during a time of crisis,” and also “to serve as a tool of propaganda for the state, at times featuring Hebrew and English alongside Farsi (Persian).
“They are intended to be photographed, posted, and shared widely on social media as a way of projecting power and resistance to a global audience,” they noted.
The evolving priorities of Iranian-linked social media accounts are interesting. Some have focused on Scottish independence from the United Kingdom and the unification of Ireland, but then switched to advancing wartime narratives following the U.S. and Israel’s February 28 strikes.
But the regime’s propaganda narrative is even more wide-ranging online.
The ‘Slopaganda’ Issue
On X, the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD), a British think tank, identified a pair of coordinated pro-Iran networks titled BRICS4CLICKS and Verified4War. During the first month of the war, their posts generated around 1 billion views, 16 million likes, and 3.5 million reposts.
It said the main account in Verified4War, “Times of Iran News,” changed its name 69 times since the profile was set up in 2021.
Another account titled “USA ARMY NEWS” disseminated the false claim that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had been killed by an Iranian missile.
That same day, seven profiles shared the exact same image with similar wording, suggesting a coordinated pro-Iran propaganda plot behind the flurry of erroneous posts.
AI-generated clips are also a huge issue, with ISD finding the presence of ones claiming to display American soldiers captured by Iran, missile attacks on Tel Aviv, and the shooting down of U.S. jets.
ISD did not find evidence that either network was directly run by the Iranian government, although it documented figures working for Iranian state media or its embassies sharing BRICS4CLICKS posts.
A Regime Built on Lies
A 2022 U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom paper detailed how the Islamic Republic’s propaganda portrayed religious minorities such as Christians and Jews as dangerous foreign agents.
It also outlined the vast presence of antisemitic conspiracy theories in the regime’s communications, including the use of “Zionist” as a descriptor for allegedly hostile networks with zero evidence of links to the State of Israel.
Despite widespread opposition to the regime, there is essentially no way for these corrosive narratives to be countered in mainstream Iranian public life due to extreme censorship.
About the Author: Georgia Gilholy
Georgia Gilholy is a journalist based in the United Kingdom who has been published in Newsweek, The Times of Israel, and the Spectator. Gilholy writes about international politics, culture, and education.
