Vance says Trump ‘sending a message’ to Iran with AI-generated video

An AI-generated video depicting missiles raining down on a key Iranian island to destroy what appears to be oil-processing infrastructure is meant as a warning to Iran, United States Vice President JD Vance says.

President Donald Trump posted the video on his Truth Social account on Sunday night and on Monday followed up with a post saying Iran was “dead” and a “failed nation”.

Asked about the posts, Vance said on Monday that they were specifically meant to tell the Iranians there will be “consequences” if they continue threatening commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.

“We know that they continue to shoot at commercial shipping. We continue to have a lot of tools at our disposal to prevent them from doing so or at least cut down on them from doing so, and that’s what the president is saying,” Vance told reporters at an Air Force base in Maryland. “‘You guys are shooting at commercial shipping. You guys are behaving like a terrorist country. You’ve got to stop or there are going to be some consequences.’”

Kharg Island in the Gulf is used by Iran to process about 90 percent of its oil exports. Trump has threatened to attack it and even take the island over since starting a war on Iran with Israel on February 28. In March, US forces hit military facilities on the island but avoided oil infrastructure.

The threats come as the US and Iran exchanged fire for the first time in nearly a month. On Sunday, the US said it targeted launchers on Iran’s Larak Island that were preparing to fire naval mines into the Strait of Hormuz. The US has been working to clear such mines in the area for months now in an ongoing battle to open the passageway for commercial shipping.

Iran retaliated by launching missiles at three airbases in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan where US forces are stationed although none of those reached their targets.

Last week, the US announced it had struck a deal with Venezuela that would give it majority control of the country’s oil reserves, the largest proven oil reserves in the world. US forces abducted then-Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January, and the new Venezuelan government has since dropped restrictions on foreign involvement in its oil sector.