Iran’s Leader Ali Khamenei Posts Provocative Anti-Trump Animated Film
Iran’s most powerful political figure, Ali Khamenei, who uses the honorific of supreme leader, has posted an animated short on his personal website that depicts former U.S. president Donald Trump being targeted and assassinated by a drone strike while golfing at his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida.
Why Khamenei posted the video: The short film, titled Revenge is Definite, honors the late Iranian general Qasem Soleimani, who was assassinated on January 3, 2020, by an American drone strike that was ordered by Trump. Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi also demanded recently that Trump be brought to justice for his role in the assassination, while Soleimani’s successor, brigadier general Ismail Ghaani has warned Trump that “they will not forget.”
Who made the animated film: The cg animated short is uncredited, but Khamenei’s camp says it’s the winning entry in the “Hero” contest, which solicited entries on the topic of revenge against Trump and former CIA director Mike Pompeo for their role in the assassination of Soleimani.
Why it matters: It’s an unsettling trend, but extremist politicians around the globe are increasingly using animation as a tactic to intimidate opponents. Another prominent recent example involved U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar, a Republican member of the House of Representatives, who tweeted an edited clip from the anime series Attack on Titan that depicted him murdering a House colleague, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez from New York.
