Even as Department of War Secretary Pete Hegseth declares a "historic and decisive victory" against the Islamic Republic of Iran, the U.S. still faces foot soldiers on another front: on America's streets.
There, a network of pro-communist groups funded by Neville Roy Singham, an American-born tech tycoon living in China, supporting the Chinese Communist Party and allies, like Iran, are flying the Iranian flag and declaring "Trump failed in his criminal war against Iran."
The rapid mobilization and quick narrative pivot illustrate how an interconnected protest infrastructure, spanning pro-communist political groups, pro-Palestinian advocacy networks and far-left activist organizations tied to international propaganda ecosystems, can coordinate demonstrations in U.S. cities within hours in a dynamic that national security experts call cognitive warfare, or a "smokeless war."
In the nation's capital Tuesday evening, activists from the professional network of well-funded far-left anti-American groups pulled up to the curb at the corner of 16th Street NW and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, unloading wagons with megaphones, pre-printed signs and protest-friendly arts-and-craft. Within minutes, they painted their hands blood-red and launched familiar chants, blurring one cause into the next, including a condemnation of "Trump's war on Iran."
A few hours later, writers at the Party for Socialism and Liberation, a self-declared pro-China communist group in the Singham network, banged out a missive on their propaganda platform, "Liberation News," headlined, "Why Trump failed in his criminal war against Iran - and why we need to keep up the pressure."
The next morning, as Hegseth declared victory over Iran, officials in the Party for Socialism and Liberation's busy Atlanta chapter issued a call for members to meet at Marietta Street NW and Centennial Olympic Park Drive NW at 5:30 p.m. for a "National Day of Action" against the U.S., declaring the Trump administration "was compelled to temporarily step back from its genocidal threats," but its members have to "KEEP THE PRESSURE UP!"
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"U.S. out of everywhere!" shouted Olivia DiNucci, a regular on the protest circuit and Washington, D.C., coordinator for CodePink, a theatrical protest group that just sent a "caravan" to Cuba to support the communist party there. DiNucci pressed her hands into the red paint and smeared them across a banner, then raised her paint-covered hands in the air as she stood beside a smiling Medea Benjamin, co-founder of CodePink.
DiNucci moved through the crowd with a wagon, handing out stickers, chatting with demonstrators and pausing with Benjamin to pose for photos.
Nearby, members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation handed out their trademark signs with the group's brand along the bottom and messages in bold sans-serif font, this time reading, "STOP THE WAR ON IRAN!"
"Free, free Palestine!" shouted members of the Palestinian Youth Movement, as flags of the Islamic Republic of Iran flew overhead, beside Palestinian flags.
"Zionism will fall, brick by brick, wall by wall," another chant began.
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Nearby, Nadine Seiler, a regular on the protest circuit who sometimes dresses in costumes, including as a pink frog, stood with her spray-painted banner, raising a question about U.S. "war crimes." Recently, she acknowledged the performative nature of the protests.
"It is political theater," she told Fox News Digital, "and we need more of it!"
Experts say scenes like this are not simple expressions of dissent, but part of a broader geopolitical contest played out in cognitive warfare, where adversaries use narratives, imagery and street theater to shape how Americans perceive conflicts unfolding far beyond their borders, even after bombs stop dropping.
In cognitive warfare, experts note, the battlefield isn't territory, like the Strait of Hormuz, but the public mind, where propaganda, protests, social media messaging and ideological narratives are used to influence how citizens interpret events and pressure governments to change policy.
In this case, proxies for U.S. adversaries, including Iran and China, are pivoting to declare the ceasefire a "victory" for Iran.
Many of the groups, including CodePink, are part of the broader protest network funded by Singham, who has financed a global constellation of activist groups and media projects promoting narratives sympathetic to the Chinese Communist Party, while depicting the United States as a "fascist" and "rogue" nation.
In 2017, as reported in a Fox News Digital investigation, Singham married a co-founder of CodePink, Jodie Evans, and started pouring a documented $278 million into a network of groups that fuel anti-American protests in the United States, support the People's Republic of China and now back the Islamic Republic of Iran, a strategic partner of China and a major source of its oil imports. Code Pink has waged a pro-China campaign for years under the slogan "China Is Not Our Enemy."
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U.S. Justice, State and Treasury officials, the House Ways and Means Committee and the House Oversight Committee are investigating several of these groups for possible violations of federal laws, including statutes that require individuals and groups acting on behalf of foreign interests to register as foreign agents with the Justice Department.
Gordon Chang, an expert on China's global influence, has warned about an expanding anti-American campaign emanating from China, writing, "Now, the Chinese regime has help funding propaganda and protests in America. After all, it has Singham's cash and world-spanning network."
In their call to action, organizers criticized Trump's Tuesday night deadline for Iran, writing: "Trump has given a deadline for genocide - either Iran surrender by 8 p.m. ET or the country's 'whole civilization will die tonight.'"
They added: "This is the criminal threat of a madman, but a madman who controls the deadly might of the Pentagon war machine."
Within hours, the same messaging began circulating across the network as additional organizations promoted similar protests nationwide.
Soon afterward, another cluster of organizations, including CodePink, joined forces with the Chicago chapters of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, the Palestinian Youth Movement, American Muslims for Palestine and Students for Justice, to announce an emergency protest at Federal Plaza in Chicago at 6 p.m. today.
Even as news emerged of the ceasefire, the protests remained scheduled because for these foot soldiers the war continued.
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Outside the White House, several self-described communist organizations, including "Refuse Fascism," the Freedom Road Socialist Organization and the All-African People's Revolutionary Party, were among the crowd at the corner of 16th Street NW, unfurling their banners and unpacking their pre-made signs.
The coalition also included Muslim advocacy organizations such as Emgage Action and the National Iranian American Council, a pro-regime Iranian-American lobbying group.
By 8:02 p.m., the CodePink crew posted a fast film from its protest at the White House with the headline, "PROTESTING US WAR ON IRAN AT THE WHITE HOUSE."
Minutes later, at 8:09 p.m., the Party for Socialism and Liberation's D.C. chapter published a hyperbolic message of success, declaring, "TONIGHT: While Trump threatens people with war and genocide abroad, the people of the U.S. call for a total end to endless imperialist wars!"
The political theater accomplished, most of the crowd, including DiNucci, with her hands still painted red, dispersed to ready for today's "EMERGENCY NATIONAL DAY OF ACTION."
Sure enough, this morning, on cue, at about 6:53 a.m., allies of the Party for Socialism and Liberation's Florida chapter summoned their foot soldiers to the corner of East Colonial Drive and North Bumby Avenue in Orlando, to support the regime in Iran, issuing an urgent dispatch for "RAPID RESPONSE MASS MOBILIZATIONS."
