Multimodal Discourse Analysis of Internet Memes as Tools of Political Communication and Criticism: A Pakistani Perspective on Donald Trump Memes during the U.S.-Iran Conflict

Abstract

This paper examines the nature of memes used online to express political sentiment and criticism related to Donald Trump during the conflict between Iran and the United States as well as after the bombing of the Iranian nuclear facilities in June 2025. The analysis is conducted from a Pakistani perspective as Pakistan historically has ties to Iran geographically, diplomatically, economically, and emotionally. A qualitative analysis of 10 publicly available meme images was conducted using multimodal resources (visuals and text) to explore how memes developed from shared online content communicate messages about war, leadership, law, media spectacle, historical cycles of conflict, economic insecurity and distrust in the government. The research indicates that memes act as compressed forms of political argumentation by making personal accusations, illustrating inconsistencies in behaviour, using humour to alleviate fear and converting geopolitical crises into public commentary that can be easily shared. This research finds that memes are not just distractions from politics but they provide insight into how digital publics construct meaning around global conflicts as a result of their multimodal nature.