AI-generated videos and memes ridiculing US President Donald Trump over the war in Iran are going viral in China despite the country being notorious for its strict censorship.

One of the most savage clips capitalises on the missile strike on an Iranian girls’ school that local officials said killed 168 people, mostly children.

Although Trump initially claimed Iran may have been responsible, a United States military investigation later found the school was hit by a US Tomahawk missile as a result of a targeting error.

In the AI-generated animated video, said to have originated from from Iran’s embassy in China, the President faces questions from a pack of journalists, one of whom asks: “Why did you attack the Minab school?”

Terrifying-looking sharp-toothed gremlin creatures in Trump’s head hiss at him to lie. He then replies: “We didn’t hit the Minab school. America doesn’t have Tomahawk missiles at all!”

Gremlins urge Donald Trump to lie in the AI-generated propaganda video.

According to a CNN report, it is just one example of how China is “seizing on the moment” to condemn the war and claim the moral high ground, with the trolling escalating at the same pace as the conflict in the Middle East.

“Beijing’s heavy-handed government censors are allowing videos like this to spread, magnifying the narrative that President Donald Trump is evil and dishonest,” said journalist Will Ripley, who is based in Taiwan.

Another animated AI-generated clip being widely shared in China shows the US – represented by an eagle dressed in a suit and tie – triggering an explosion and then putting other countries (depicted as doves) in a cage to “keep everyone safe”.

“Relax, sometimes security comes with a little control,” says the eagle.

The mocking comes as Trump this week announced he was postponing a planned trip to China to meet President Xi Jinping amid the ongoing war with Iran. The Beijing visit was scheduled for March 31-April 2 and would have been his first trip there during his second term.

China, like other nations, has ignored Trump’s request for help to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after the crucial shipping channel was effectively closed by Iran, disrupting oil and gas supplies and sending fuel prices skyrocketing.

An AI-generated video posted on social media by Iran Military Media shows Trump standing on a roadside with his thumb out while holding a piece of cardboard with the plea “Help Me! Open Hormuz!”. A succession of world leaders drive past him laughing and singing “Row, row, row your boat”.

Cartoons in Chinese state media are also mocking Trump’s role in the rising price of oil, according to CNN, while a “tidal wave” of social media videos and memes circulating in China mock a prayer circle that occurred during his recent meeting with Christian leaders in the White House’s Oval Office.

Trump was also trolled in a propaganda video posted this month by Iran’s state news agency, which showed the US President and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as Lego figurines.

Titled Narrative of Victory, the video shows the pair looking over a folder titled “Jeffrey Epstein File” while a Lego Satan looks on. An angry Trump then pushes a red button to launch a US missile, purportedly to distract from what is in the files, with the clip’s distressing final images making reference to the strike on the school in Minab.

@gbnews Iran State TV has published a Lego animated propaganda video depicting the Middle East war with America and Israel. In the full video, Donald Trump can be seen flanked by Benjamin Netanyahu and the devil looking at pictures from the Epstein files before the President pushes a big red button, launching a missile at Iran. It also features Iran striking on RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus. The full warped two-minute video, shared by IRGC-controlled Tasnim News Agency, also shows further strikes across the Middle East. #Iran #MiddleEast #DonaldTrump #Lego #GBNews ♬ original sound – GB News

Trump’s own administration also regularly uses social media memes, AI slop and pop culture references to attack its own opponents.

During the current conflict, posts on the White House’s official accounts have included declassified missile detonation clips spliced with SpongeBob SquarePants images, and an animation depicting Iranian regime officials as angry skittles toppled by a bowling bowl.

Another, posted just after the strike in Monab, featured a montage of clips from films such as Top Gun and Tropic Thunder with the title “Justice the American Way”.

@whitehouseSTRIKE 💥🦅♬ original sound – The White House