U.S. President Donald Trump salutes after disembarking Marine One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, New Jersey, U.S., August 2, 2026. REUTERS/Daniel Heuer
President Donald Trump lit up Truth Social late Sunday with an AI-generated video and boast that showed Iran's most important oil hub obliterated — and critics wasted no time torching him for it.
"Kharg Island being blown to smithereens!!!" Trump captioned the clip, which showed an airman gazing out an aircraft window as an oil terminal erupted in flames behind him. He followed it with a second AI video of missiles pounding a coastal oilfield — then, moments later, posted a clip of himself golfing.
There was no evidence the island, which handles roughly 90% of Iran's oil exports, had been hit, and Iranian media reported no such attack. Overnight, U.S. forces hit two Iranian rocket-launcher sites on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz, their first strikes on Iran in a month. Tehran answered with ballistic missiles aimed at U.S. bases in Jordan.
Critics lost it over Trump's post.
"FACT CHECK: Kharg Island was not blown to smithereens," wrote political commentator Brian Krassenstein. "Trumps brain is apparently blown to smithereens."
Political scientist Glenn Diesen scoffed that "Kharg Island is not under attack, but Trump's sense of reality is under attack - assisted by AI."
Libertarian activist Caryn Ann Harlos was frank: "He is a madman who must be stopped."
Others were simply bewildered.
"The video is AI slop. So I have no idea what to do with this information," posted right-wing activist Nick Sortor, who said he had "no reason to believe Kharg is actually under fire."
Richard Woodruff, a British volunteer supporting Ukraine since 2022, fumed that Trump was "literally sharing AI explosion slop and giggling like a little girl," and told "America" to "impeach this lunatic."
It's not the first time Trump has reached for AI to trumpet his Iran war — a conflict he's escalated even while branding Iran a "failing nation."