TEHRAN — State-sponsored billboards featuring violent imagery are displayed across Tehran. The displays include depictions of President Donald Trump in a casket and the White House engulfed in flames.

One billboard features an image of President Donald Trump lying in a casket with his hands together over his belly. Another display shows the White House on fire with the words "blood for blood" written in Persian above the flames.

A billboard near Enghelab Square featured Trump lying in a casket before being replaced by an image of Trump being strangled by several pairs of hands. A separate billboard featured the message "Revenge is inevitable" in English.

One billboard is a parody of the American flag with skulls in place of stars and bombs dropping from the stripes. This imagery echoes a hand-painted mural parodying the Stars and Stripes that has existed in Tehran since at least 1997. That mural features skulls in place of stars, bombs dropping from stripes, and the message "Down With The U.S.A." across the middle.

Modern propaganda images appear to have been generated with the help of artificial intelligence. President Donald Trump has posted AI-generated images featuring Iran’s ships and energy infrastructure being blown up and taken over by the U.S. military. Explosive Media has published dozens of Lego-inspired videos mocking Trump and his administration.

A billboard referred to sailors killed by a torpedo attack on the Iranian warship Iris Dena by the USS Charlotte attack submarine. According to figures issued by U.S. Central Command on July 18, seventeen U.S. service members have died since the start of the war with Iran.

Mojtaba Khamenei succeeded Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as supreme leader. Banners of Mojtaba Khamenei were posted around Tehran after his father's death. Ali Hosseini Khamenei served as the second supreme leader of Iran from 1989 until his assassination in 2026. The state funeral of Ali Khamenei took place from 3 to 9 July, 2026, following his assassination on 28 February 2026.

Why It Matters

The billboards represent a state-sanctioned visual campaign in the capital of Iran, an upper middle income economy located in the Middle East. The imagery connects current hostilities to historical anti-American sentiment, as seen in the long-standing mural in Tehran. The use of artificial intelligence by both sides marks a shift in how propaganda is produced and distributed during the conflict. The displays reference specific military incidents and casualty figures, grounding the symbolic violence in reported events.