President Trump’s Address to the Nation: Live Updates

The war has given rise to new forms of propaganda, as both the United States and Iran use social media and pop culture-infused memes in a battle for messaging supremacy.

Iran’s main target is President Trump, with state media and government officials alike relentlessly mocking and amplifying criticism of the US leader.

The most striking example is a series of videos that appear to be AI-generated, depicting Iran’s military successes against the United States and Israel in a Lego-esque cartoon art style.

Meme wars are not one-sided. Official U.S. government accounts have been sharing videos splicing sports, movie and video game clips with actual footage of military attacks since the early days of the war.

Despite the criticism, the Trump administration has no intention of changing its strategy. Case in point: Ahead of President Trump’s speech, White House Press Secretary Kaylan Dole posted an AI-generated image depicting a character resembling Gru from the movie “Despicable Me” wearing a red MAGA hat, waving an American flag and riding a missile with a pro-Trump sticker.

Read the full text here.

— Kevin Breuninger

President Trump has been considering the idea of ​​the United States leaving the North Atlantic Treaty Organization for years, and is expected to reiterate his dissatisfaction with the Western military in his speech on Wednesday.

But President Trump could be prevented from unilaterally pulling the U.S. out of NATO thanks to a 2023 bill authored in part by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, then a Republican senator from Florida.

The National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2024 includes provisions that would prevent the U.S. president from unilaterally withdrawing from NATO, which would require a two-thirds majority vote in the Senate or Congress. Rubio co-sponsored the bill with Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, and it was signed into law in December 2023.

In other words, President Trump’s move to withdraw from NATO would immediately put it in legal jeopardy. The alliance was founded in 1949 after World War II.

“The Senate should continue to monitor whether our country leaves NATO. We must protect our national interests and ensure the security of our democratic allies,” Rubio said in passing the bill.

In a recent interview with Al Jazeera, Mr. Rubio spoke out in a particularly harsh tone toward the alliance.

“If NATO is just going to protect us if Europe is attacked and deny us the right to base when we need to, that’s not a very good deal. It’s hard to stay involved in this and say this is good for the United States. So we’re going to have to reconsider all of that,” he said.

— Garrett Downs

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian defended Iran’s actions in the war against the United States and Israel as “legitimate self-defense” and denounced the “delusions of foreign aggressors” in a letter to the American people on Wednesday.

“The Iranian people do not harbor hostility towards other countries, including nationals of the United States, Europe, and neighboring countries,” Pezeshkian said in a letter published by Iranian state media ahead of President Donald Trump’s scheduled speech.

The leader accused the United States of decades of unwarranted aggression and intervention in Iran and argued that the current war was hurting America’s “world standing.”

He also accused the United States of being an “agent of Israel” and encouraged Americans to question their government’s claims about Iran.

— Kevin Breuninger