Tehran’s viral videos satirising a Lego-style president have harnessed the power of AI – and Maga’s debasing of political discourse – and turned it against the US, writes disinformation expert Nina Jankowicz.
In a recent pro-Iran propaganda video, a tearful Donald Trump – depicted in Lego form – walks through the rain from a Lego building labelled “Hormuz Strait” to a Lego limousine, where he drinks a Lego Diet Coke and snuggles a young Lego girl with blonde pigtails. The scene is accompanied by a driving bassline under a melody that evokes a schoolyard taunt: “Look in the mirror / tell me what you see / big ego crushed / fake reality.” A taco – referencing the viral “Trump Always Chickens Out” meme – sits in the foreground.
Explosive Media, a production company that counts the Iranian government among its clients, has created dozens of such AI-generated videos since the start of Trump’s war against Iran, garnering millions of views across social media platforms. One video includes a drunk Lego Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, assaulting a Lego woman in a bar. Another shows Lego versions of Trump and Netanyahu conspiring with Satan to bomb a girls’ school.
