MS NOW reporter Ken Dilanian said President Donald Trump has probably been “more hurtful to America’s image” than the viral artificial intelligence-generated videos Iran has created to mock Trump and his administration, calling them “very clever” on Friday.
The justice and intelligence correspondent appeared on “Katy Tur Reports” to discuss the viral propaganda videos, which have parodied Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other officials, noting that America “invented” the internet and artificial intelligence.
“And yet this murderous, theocratic regime is using those technologies to win the propaganda war with these very clever, very compelling videos that go right to the heart of some of the weaknesses of the arguments being made by the Trump administration,” he said.
“They make fun of Donald Trump for the Jesus post, for some of the wild things that he said, they use British rap lyrics, it’s in English.” Dilanian continued. “They’re very clever. By one count, they racked up more than a billion views on X alone.”
The videos are Lego-themed, far from subtle, and laser-focused on the flaws of Trump’s America.
One shows Trump confronted by documents labeled “Epstein Files” as a voice raps, “The secrets are leaking, the pressure is rising.” Another shows George Floyd under the boot of a cop, with a rap stating Iran is “here for everyone your system ever wronged.”
Perhaps the most viral video of all was aimed exclusively at Hegseth and his alleged alcohol problem, showing a drunken Lego version of the accused sexual abuser lying on the floor with a bottle in his hand as the rap lyrics call him a “punk-ass, rapist bitch.”
“And look, a lot of the extreme things that Donald Trump has said are probably more hurtful to America’s image than anything in these videos,” Dilanian said Friday about the president’s litany of staggering posts and comments. “But this has become a cultural phenomenon.”
The BBC recently interviewed a representative for Explosive Media, one of the Iran-based groups that make these videos. He reportedly asked to be called “Mr. Explosive” and said he was “totally independent” before admitting the Iranian regime is a “customer.”
The propaganda war is certainly not one-sided, as the White House has frequently released videos celebrating U.S. airstrikes — combining artificial intelligence-generated imagery with real footage of Iranian targets being killed — which Trump himself has shared.
Dilanian appeared to suggest, however, that the content from Iran is far more effective.
“It’s just really remarkable. And the U.S. has no answer because, in part, the State Department disbanded some of the organizations that were designed to flag and counter foreign propaganda,” he said.
The Guardian reported Thursday that the Trump administration has shuttered a hub known as the “Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference,” noting that it was the State Department’s last bulwark against foreign disinformation campaigns.
