Trump, burger, Hormuz: meet the Iranian team behind billboard war on US

Huge billboards on the walls of Tehran mocking US President Donald Trump and depicting American drones under the boot of an Iranian soldier are providing a chronicle of Iran’s war with the United States and Israel.

Khaneh-ye Tarrahan, or Designers’ House, produces the billboards with anti-US messaging for prominent locations in Tehran where they are seen daily by large crowds of passers-by, including the city’s famed Valiasr Square.

The team created a towering portrayal of Trump’s lips sewn and his mouth muzzled by the Strait of Hormuz waterway at the centre of the Iran war, accompanied by the words “At the breaking point”.

“When news breaks, the team mobilises: ideas are generated, the graphic designers are briefed and we collaborate,” said Mostafa Kafaei, 32, who manages the studio.

As he spoke, people worked on projects at several desks in the office.

It features a whiteboard for brainstorming, while photos of martyrs and ideas adorn the hallway wall.

Kafaei’s studio, which includes a dedicated media-monitoring team, works under one of the country’s biggest state-run media conglomerates.

The billboards are sponsored by the government and used to convey its messages far and wide.

One from a different studio shows Trump trapped inside a magician’s box, clutching a Coca-Cola and a hamburger with the words: “Blink, you’re gone!”

The billboard refers to a July incident in Turkey where Trump was smuggled from Air Force One to a different aircraft on a catering truck due to a security threat.

“Speed has become a top priority,” said Kafaei, with urgent posters turned around in just a few days by teams of up to around eight people.

Most of their work is created in Photoshop, he said, adding that the team is “highly proficient in AI”, using “various AI engines, such as ChatGPT and Nano Banana” as part of the production process.

Another towering billboard recently put up in Tehran shows an Iranian soldier stepping on a US underwater drone, depicting a recent “Hormuz catch” by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and bragging that “business is good”.

Iran has blockaded commercial shipping through the Hormuz strait since the war began in late February with US-Israeli strikes on the Islamic Republic, while the US military has upheld a counter-blockade of Iran’s ports.

A different advertisement shows a mythical warrior standing in raging seas as US warships burn, along with a message reading “Satan’s army will drown in the Persian Gulf”.

Riffing off the cover of Nirvana’s Nevermind album, another depicts Trump grasping at a dollar bill underwater, next to the words “GREAT VICTORY! Strait of Hormuz”.

“There was some initial hesitation about whether to feature such a large image of Trump’s face on the Valiasr mural,” Kafaei said of the image with Trump’s lips sewn up, which appeared in May as the strategic trade route became central to the conflict.

But “the overall assessment was that the final piece would be exceptionally powerful”, he said.

When asked why the US leader featured on so many billboards, Kafaei said Trump “is a media personality … We respond in kind whenever he takes action in that space”.

Comparing it to a battlefield scenario with an adversary “constantly firing at us”, the studio chief said “we keep a close watch on our opponent and respond accordingly”.

Large billboards glorifying Iran, its former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, killed at the start of the war, and allies like slain Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah have also appeared around the city.

Kafaei said the billboards helped many people who “may not be politically minded” to grasp “the overall context of what is going on in the country”.

Retiree Mahmoudreza Rezaei, 53, recalled seeing a billboard that referred to “Satan’s wedding gift” – a message he understood to be directed at Trump after an alleged US attack in the country’s south last month that killed several people at a wedding ceremony.

“It kept me pondering for a few minutes, trying to decipher the meaning,” Rezaei said.

“It had a bit of a riddle-like quality.”

Sahar Jahedi, 24, who works in a pharmacy, said she was captivated by the billboard of Trump trapped in the magician’s box, which went up in central Tehran’s Jomhouri Square.

While “so many people are currently struggling just to survive, they may not have the time” to follow the news, she said.

“Billboards like this … can play a significant role in keeping more people informed about current events.”