Someone come get Grandpa, he’s losing his grip on reality again.
For the second time in a month, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has fallen for a fake image of the Iran war. After a downed airman was rescued in Iran over the weekend, Abbott was one of several Republican politicos who were seemingly fooled by an AI-generated image of the rescue.
The soldier, whose identity hasn’t been publicly disclosed, was stranded in the mountains of Iran for two days after his F-15E Strike Eagle jet was shot down Friday and both he and the pilot ejected, according to the BBC. While the pilot was rescued the same day, the weapons operator got separated and stranded in the Iranian wilderness, the news agency reports.
“WE GOT HIM! My fellow Americans, over the past several hours, the United States Military pulled off one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in U.S. History, for one of our incredible Crew Member Officers, who also happens to be a highly respected Colonel, and who I am thrilled to let you know is now SAFE and SOUND!” President Donald Trump wrote on TruthSocial.
Both Abbott and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton were caught sharing a tweet of a fake rescue image circulated by a MAGA account on X, according to The Guardian.
“This is so awesome,” Abbott wrote to his 1.4 million X followers in a since-deleted post.
Alluding to its occurrence on the Easter weekend, Texas Attorney General and U.S. Senate hopeful Ken Paxton said, “God is sending a message to our enemies!”
Billy Binion, a reporter for libertarian magazine Reason, warned in a tweet that the Texas leaders’ failure to check the authenticity of the image is troubling.
“This kind of stuff is bleak,” Binion said. “I get that we’re in a new era, but we desperately need a new crash course in media literacy, or just a reminder to be remotely discerning. The governor of Texas should not be sharing an obviously fake photo from a slop account.”
Abbott’s SNAFU comes just a month after he fell for images from a World War II video game presented as recent combat footage and thought it was real video of a battle between a U.S. Navy ship and an Iranian plane.
“Bye bye,” Abbott’s post gloated after the vessel shot down plane in a battle that never occurred in real life.
The Iran war has been marked by the use of AI propaganda — or “slopaganda,” as some are now calling it — by both the U.S. and Iranian accounts.
Iran has been sharing a series of LEGO movie dupes, mocking Trump and accusing him of being a pedophile.
Created and circulated by Iran-affiliated viral video account Explosive News, the Iranian LEGO-style slopaganda videos have been noted for their catchy songs, production value and endless receipts when it comes to skewering Trump.
Indeed, the propaganda machine dropped a new video Monday accusing the United States of using the Hannibal Directive, a controversial Israeli protocol in which a country bombs its own plane and personnel to avoid enemy capture.
U.S. officials confirmed that they destroyed the jet Iranian forces shot down to protect sensitive technology and mission data from being discovered. However, no personnel were harmed in the destruction of the aircraft, they added.
Rather than being oriented toward its own people, Iran’s LEGO movies are in English and seem intended for a U.S. audience. By conveying messaging through LEGO movies, a successful franchise in the West, the regime seems to be weaponizing the “soft power” of America’s Hollywood against itself.
Hey, at least with LEGOs, no one thinks it’s real. However, some do seem to think the clips are truthful.
“The fact that a LEGO video gives you more accurate information than a presidential address is crazy,” the most-liked comment on the Instagram video reads.
“US media is censoring everything. Iran worked around it through these videos. It may seem juvenile but it’s effective,” states another comment about the LEGO video series.
Much like radio personality Hanoi Hannah during the Vietnam War, it’s hard to know what kind of impact the propaganda is having. But judging by the comments, Iran’s LEGO movies might be working on at least some U.S. residents.
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