Bunker-buster bombs in Isfahan: Verifying Donald Trump's cryptic video post
The U.S. president has long blurred the lines between official communications and meme misinformation, complicating verification during a tense war
The United States hit a large ammunition depot in Isfahan, in central Iran using 900 kg of bunker-buster bombs, an unnamed official told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, March 31.
U.S. President Donald Trump shared a video on his Truth Social account at 8:50 p.m. on Monday (U.S. Eastern Time). The clip was posted without any caption, but came as the U.S. had reportedly struck a location in the central Iranian city of Isfahan.
The nighttime footage shows several explosions and a mushroom cloud in the sky. The official quoted by the WSJ confirmed that the video captured the overnight U.S. strikes in Isfahan.
Verifying the strike
The nature of the video does not allow for independent verification, and there is little available visual information to allow for geolocation.
However, no examples of older use of the clip were found by Eurovision News Spotlight, helping to establish that the incident shown in the video was in fact recent.
Accounts that frequently share footage from eyewitnesses inside Iran had also posted about the bombing in Isfahan overnight. A higher quality version of the same clip posted by Trump was shared by @mamlekate on X almost 50 minutes before the Truth Social post went out.
Vahid, a prominent online activist who has been documenting the protest movements and war in Iran with footage sent directly to him, also shared a few different clips showing explosions. One video showed a mushroom cloud with illuminated explosions to its right — which appeared to match the scene in the video shared by Trump and @mamlekate.
Finding the location
Attempts have been made to geolocate the ammunition depot hit by the strike, with social media users suggesting it occurred in the southwest part of Isfahan.
Other circulating videos described as showing the Isfahan strikes can add insight about the general location. Another video on social media, described as showing the overnight explosions in Isfahan and shot from another angle, showed a mosque in the foreground.
The mosque appears to be a visual match for Mosalla Mosque, which has a curved ceiling, a large dome, and a series of columns at either end of the structure, which can be seen on Google Maps.
That mosque, while more central, is also in south Isfahan. The angle from which we are seeing the explosions also suggest they were lighting up the sky further south, which is the general location of a mountain ridge that could match that seen in Trump’s video and other views identified by OSINT social media users.
Despite these clues pointing to southwest Isfahan as being the location of the strikes, Eurovision News Spotlight was still unable to pinpoint the exact location at the time of writing.
Trump’s use of social media
Although U.S. President Donald Trump shared the clip, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that neither he nor any U.S. employees are the owners of the video, which is likely to have been filmed by an eyewitness, circulated on social media, and was later shared with Trump.
Traditionally, media releases by a figure like the U.S. president would automatically be considered as confirmation or verification of an incident. However, much of that has changed under Donald Trump, who, since entering politics, has become known for his relaxed use of social media.
The U.S. president has long pushed the limits between the real and the unreal, often using AI-generated memes to mock his critics or present his vision for the U.S. — or at times the world.
There have been repeated instances of the president posting questionable or outright false claims and content, which is important context for how to approach the verification of a new, uncaptioned video of such apparent importance.
In this case, an official had to be asked whether the material was genuine, which gives a sense of how news outlets are approaching the president’s no-context musings and content reshares.