Featured Image Credit: Kenny Holston-Pool/Getty Images
Topics: Iran, Donald Trump, World News, News, US News, Israel, Politics
Madison Burgess
Topics: Iran, Donald Trump, World News, News, US News, Israel, Politics
Iranian state media has posted a bizarre AI-generated video mocking the Epstein files controversy which has rocked Trump's administration, while depicting the US leader as a Lego-style figurine.
It's been almost two weeks since America and Israel launched a war against Iran, killing the nation's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Trump and Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu claimed the attack came in response to the Islamic Republic's increasingly totalitarian leadership and the oppression of Iranian citizens. They also hoped the strikes would mean that Iran 'does not obtain a nuclear weapon'.
However, Iran retaliated, sending drones and missiles to Israel and US-allied states in the Gulf, pulling other countries into the conflict.
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And now, after people have been left confused by Trump's mixed messages on when exactly the war could end, a new propaganda video has been posted by Iran’s Tasnim News Agency.
The AI-generated video, which features Lego versions of the world leaders, shows Trump and Netanyahu standing by what appears to be a Lego Satan and looking over a folder called 'Jeffrey Epstein File'.
Lego-style Trump then pushes a big red panic button, which sends a US missile that hits a school, seemingly referring to the attack in Iran's Minab city on an all-girls elementary school.
The clip showed children in a classroom before fading to black, and then showing rubble from the explosion, while a Lego Iranian soldier held a child’s pink backpack in the ruins.
On the first day of the conflict, the school Shajareh Tayyebeh was obliterated by drones. Iran says a devastating total of 175 people inside were killed. Of these, 151 victims were children aged between seven and 12.
According to Politico, Iran formally blamed America and Israel for the attack. However, neither country has taken responsibility, and Trump denied it was the US. The incident remains under investigation.
The propaganda video then appears to show the rest of the war so far playing out, including Iran's attacks in Tel Aviv, on UK forces in Cyprus, and targeting American vessels in the Strait of Hormuz.
It comes after Trump issued comments about the Minab attack during a brief press conference on the matter over the weekend.
Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, claimed the assault would 'never be erased from the historical memory of our nation'.
But when asked by a reporter while exiting Air Force One on Sunday (8 March) whether the 'United States bombed a girls' elementary school', Trump responded with: "No, in my opinion and based on what I've seen, that was done by Iran."
The same reporter then asked US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth whether this was 'true'.
Hegseth said, "We're certainly investigating. But the only side that targets civilians is Iran."
Trump added: "We think it was done by Iran because they're very inaccurate, as you know, with their munitions. They have no accuracy whatsoever. It was done by Iran."
Tyla has contacted the White House and LEGO for comment.
The Strait of Hormuz, located between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, is one of the world's most important oil shipping routes and sees around 3,000 ships sail through it per month.
It carries around a quarter of global seaborne oil trade and significant volumes of liquefied natural gas and fertilisers, according to the UN Trade & Development, meaning any form of disruption can be catastrophic for the global energy system.
And this is exactly what we are seeing. Since the joint attack on Iran by the US and Israel at the end of February, traffic through the Strait has fallen drastically, resulting in a global rise in prices of goods such as oil, energy, and food.
But this isn't the only major conflict the Strait of Hormuz is enduring.
On March 11, maritime authorities confirmed that three cargo vessels in the strait were hit by 'unknown projectiles', while the US military said on the same day that it attacked and destroyed 16 Iranian mine-laying vessels near the strait amid reports that Iran began laying explosive devices in the waterway.
CNN previously reported that the Middle Eastern country had laid a few dozen mines in the Strait in the past week, and has the capability to sow hundreds more.
President Trump said in a post on Truth Social on Tuesday (March 10) that 'if Iran has put out any mines in the Hormuz Strait, and we have no reports of them doing so, we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY!'
He added: "If for any reason mines were placed, and they are not removed forthwith, the Military consequences to Iran will be at a level never seen before."
It is believed Iran has attacked 13 vessels operating around the Gulf since the war began, with countries such as Thailand and Japan reporting damage to ships.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said earlier this week it will not allow even 'one litre of oil' to leave the region if US-Israeli attacks continue, meaning disruptions and price rises across the globe are unfortunately to be expected if the war carries on.