On April 5, US President Donald Trump issued an expletive-laden threat to Iran: open the Strait of Hormuz, whose near closure has spiked oil prices globally, or else bridges and power plants would be bombed.

“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F****** Strait, you crazy b*******, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump posted on his Truth Social account, and subsequently on X.

His broadside came days after he threatened to send Iran back to the “Stones Ages” unless it agreed to a deal to end the war.

Iran, on the other hand, has avoided matching Trump’s rhetoric. Rather, it dismissed his threats as “stupid” while Iranian diplomatic missions from across the world have trolled Trump on social media, using tongue-in-cheek responses.

Iranian embassies from London to Pretoria, and New Delhi to Moscow, launched a sarcastic campaign on social media, attacking Trump’s mental acuity, mocking his language, and sharing satirical memes.

The most viral exchange occurred over Trump’s blunt demand to “Open the Strait”. The Iranian embassy in Zimbabwe casually said on X: “We’ve lost the keys.”

The joke quickly snowballed across continents.

The Iranian embassy in South Africa chimed in, telling Zimbabwe, “Shh… the key’s under the flowerpot. Just open for friends.”

Taking the mockery a step further, the Iranian embassy in Bulgaria responded to the thread with a sharp jab referencing the late convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein: “Doors open for friends. Epstein’s friends need keys.”

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Epstein died in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial for sex trafficking charges.

Trump’s political rivals have accused him of launching the war to distract from the release of millions of documents related to Epstein. The first release of the files in late 2025 exposed the links between billionaires, academics and politicians with Epstein. Though Trump was also mentioned numerous times in the files, he has denied any wrongdoing, claiming he had severed contact with Epstein decades ago.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi, who handled the Epstein files, was removed from her post on April 2. Analysts say Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files had become a growing political problem for the Trump administration.

The 25th Amendment

A significant portion of the online campaign focused on painting the 79-year-old US president as mentally unfit and unhinged.

The Iranian embassy in South Africa urged US officials to “seriously think about the 25th amendment, Section 4”, referencing the US constitutional provision for removing a sitting president deemed unfit for office.

The embassy later shared a post by British broadcaster Piers Morgan, who called Trump’s tweet “embarrassing” and suggested the president had “lost his marbles”. The South African mission added: “Humanity must know what kind of creatures are leading the American people.”

This focus on Trump’s cognitive state was echoed by the Iranian embassy in Tajikistan, which shared the same post from Morgan, adding dryly, “It was understood with a slight delay, but congratulations nonetheless. Thank you all for your attention.”

In London, the Iranian embassy took a literary approach. It posted a Persian poem by Rumi about the dangers of placing a sword in the hands of a madman, accompanied by a famous quote attributed to Mark Twain: “It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.”

’18+’ warnings

Several diplomatic missions took aim at Trump’s use of profanities and religious references.

The Iranian embassy in India did not hold back. “Swearing and throwing insults are how sore loser brats behave. Get a grip on yourself, old man!” it wrote.

The Iranian embassy in Austria placed a massive “18+” graphic over a screenshot of Trump’s post. “POTUS has stooped to an unprecedented level of begging, laced with bitter, hollow rudeness and threats,” the mission in Vienna wrote. It also issued a “further warning: shield all minors under 18 from exposure to Trump’s rhetoric”, before soberly reminding Washington that attacking civilian infrastructure constitutes a “War Crime”.

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Political cartoons

The digital offensive was rounded off with international political cartoons shared by Iranian missions in Europe, including Russia.

The embassy in Berlin posted a caricature from the German magazine Der Spiegel depicting Trump looking into a mirror, imagining himself as an emperor.

In Moscow, the Iranian embassy shared a Russian illustration showing Trump as a delusional Don Quixote charging at a windmill on a horse, with a sidekick shouting, “Boss, it’s just a windmill!”

Don Quixote is the protagonist of a 17th-century Spanish novel, who was mocked for his delusions of grandeur.

The widespread online mockery comes as the Middle East region is on edge before Trump’s deadline to reopen the strategic Strait of Hormuz by early Wednesday, local time.

Meanwhile, the Iranian missions are making light of the heightened tensions, one social media post at a time.