Esmaeil Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has shared a clip from The Apprentice, a 2024 biopic about Trump’s early career.

The scene features Roy Cohn, Trump’s mentor in the film, laying out his “rules for winning”, including the idea that “no matter what happens, you claim victory and never admit defeat” and that success requires being “willing to do anything to anyone”.

Baghaei’s post is part of a wider wave of Iranian official messaging and affiliated accounts taunting the US president and mocking his widely criticised and poorly planned attack.

Baghaei has also previously drawn on literary and historical figures in his commentary, including the Martinican thinker Aime Cesaire and the 12th-century Persian poet Farid al-Din Attar, notably in an Al Jazeera column critiquing US policy.