Iran holds Donald Trump cartoon contest

'The ism in "Trumpism" is a reference to racism and Nazism,' said organiser Masuod Shojai Tabatabaei

Iranian reformist cleric Mahmoud Doaei looks at cartoons of US President Donald J. Trump at an exhibition of the Islamic Republic's 2017 International Trumpism cartoon and caricature contest, in the capital Tehran on July 3, 2017. (AFP/Getty)

A cartoon contest has been held in Tehran, Iran in which hundreds of entrants were invited to mock US president Donald Trump.

Courting controversy, the T in the 'Trumpism' contest's logo was styled like a swastika, with one entry seeing Trump painting a Hitler-esque moustache on the Statue of Liberty.

“The ism in Trumpism is a reference to racism and Nazism,” organiser Masuod Shojai Tabatabaei told the AP. "Many believe his remarks are similar to Hitler. He has had a bad attitude toward media, refugees.”

Iranian Hadi Asadi won first prize and a $1,500 award for his artwork, which sees Trump wearing a jacket made of dollar bills and drooling.

“I wanted to show Trump while trampling symbols of culture,” Asadi said (via AP), adding that he sought to highlight the president's "money-mindedness and war monger nature".

Violence against women and wall building were also depicted in the contest, which followed last year's Holocaust-themed one, designed to draw attention to Western double standards on free speech and not cast doubt on the Nazi genocide.

Opened on Monday, the exhibition includes works of some 1,614 Iranian and foreign participants from 74 countries, including four works from American cartoonists, two of which two were awarded.