Hyderabad: Donald Trump on Thursday found himself at the receiving end of some sharp satire — all the way from Banjara Hills in Hyderabad, home to the local Iranian consulate. Taking an acidic swipe at the US President for his recent post on the social media platform Truth Social, the consulate set off a full scale meme war online.The latest flashpoint came after Trump shared a transcript of a show featuring radio host Michael Savage. In the transcript, Savage criticised the US immigration policy, claiming that immigrants had exploited birthright citizenship. He referred to countries like India and China as “hellholes.”The transcript read: “A baby here becomes an instant citizen, and then they bring the entire family in from China or India or some other hellhole on the planet. You don’t have to go too far to see that. English is not spoken here any more. That there’s almost no loyalty to this country amongst the immigrant class coming in today, which was not always the case.”Reacting swiftly, Hyderabad-based Iran consulate’s X handle said: “Every day, with a new post, Trump’s inhumanity proves to be beyond infinity. This is racism itself.” It then followed up with, “China and India are the cradles of civilisation. In fact, the #hellhole is where its war-criminal president threatened to decimate the civilisation in Iran.”The later post read, “Divide and rule; but Trump is just dividing without any rule. #hellhole.”This triggered a wave of memes in support of Iran. One such meme portrayed Trump as a haggard Einstein, whimsically explaining the blockade at the Strait of Hormuz, while another depicts him in tattered clothes after a bombing, ironically declaring victory.The digital pushback has extended beyond text. One of their posts on April 22 that went viral had an AI generated video showing Trump fuming and threatening to bomb Iran after their negotiators failed to turn for talks. The clip ended with an exasperated Trump extending the ceasefire “at Pakistan’s request”.This is not the first time the Iranian consulate in Hyderabad has taken on Trump. Over the past few weeks, it has posted a series of satirical messages. One such post read: “The president, who couldn’t block his own border with Mexico, wants to block thousands of kilometres of our borders.!!!!” Another said: “The Strait of Hormuz isn’t social media. If someone blocks you, you can’t just block them back.”The Hyderabad consulate is not alone in this approach. In recent weeks, Iranian consulates across the globe have upped their social media game, using satire to respond to Trump’s remarks. The posts have drawn significant engagement online, with netizens dubbing it a “parallel meme war on the internet.”When contacted, sources at the Iranian consulate in Hyderabad said the posts were being created locally in India. “The US and Israel are pushing propaganda which cannot be replied to by official statements, creativity in our replies to reach people is a more effective way that can be helpful,” a source said.
