‘Revenge is inevitable’: Iran ramps up propaganda war with violent billboards

Anti-U.S. messaging has intensified since the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, with artificial intelligence playing a major role.

The billboards are state-sponsored, plastered across Iran’s capital and far from subtle. One features an image of President Donald Trump lying in a casket; another shows the White House on fire; a third is a parody of the American flag with skulls in place of the stars and bombs dropping from the stripes.

Alongside ads for a multitude of products such as cars and shampoo, the giant billboards have become familiar sights to the people of Tehran in recent years. But since the country’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was killed in an airstrike on the first day of the war launched by the United States and Israel, the messaging has become bolder and the tone more violent during the almost six-month conflict.