03 January 19
FOCUS: Soleimani Posted Memes Antagonizing Trump on Social Media
Avi Selk, The Washington Post
Selk writes: "Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq early Friday, wasn’t just an infamous terrorist organizer and one of the regime’s most powerful officials — he was also one of President Trump’s social media antagonists."
Avi Selk, The Washington Post
Selk writes: "Iranian Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a U.S. airstrike in Iraq early Friday, wasn’t just an infamous terrorist organizer and one of the regime’s most powerful officials — he was also one of President Trump’s social media antagonists."
EXCERPT:
This back and forth took shape after Trump withdrew from a three-year-old nuclear deal with Iran, and as he threatened new economic penalties on the country. In his own Hollywood riff in November 2018, Trump tweeted a poster of himself posing heroically against a “Game of Thrones”-style background and play on the show’s “Winter is coming” tagline: “SANCTIONS ARE COMING."
Trump didn’t address Soleimani specifically, and it’s unclear whether he was intentionally mimicking the general’s meme, but Soleimani responded in kind a day later:
Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (#IRGC) #Quds Force Major General Qassem Soleimani responded to #US President Donald Trump’s announcement that ‘sanctions are coming’ with a Game of Thrones-inspired meme of his owntn.ai/1867553
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Superimposing himself into movie posters has since become one of Trump’s favorite social media tactics — see Trump-as-Rocky-Balboa and Trump-as-Thanos from last year.
Soleimani didn’t fare as well. Instagram suspended his account in April, after Trump followed through on his sanctions threat. Justifying the U.S. airstrike that killed Soleimani in Baghdad on Friday, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said, “Gen. Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region."
Iran has promised to retaliate, and thousands of U.S. troops have been ordered to the region amid fears of a new war.
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