For some reason — perhaps political expedience — President Donald Trump has taken a close interest in protests that have sprung up in Iran following their government admitting to accidentally shooting down a passenger jet, which killed all 176 people on board, including many Iranians. This week, he tweeted patronizing praise of those demonstrators for seemingly refusing to physically denigrate U.S. and Israeli flags, a stand which was documented in a widely circulated tweet from Iranian journalist Masih Alinejad. Trump’s post about it implicitly suggests that the previous anti-U.S. displays of very selected demonstrators reflected Iranians as a whole, and now, building off that false assumption, Trump’s lording himself over the Iranian demonstrators.
He tweeted:
‘Wow! The wonderful Iranian protesters refused to step on, or in any way denigrate, our Great American Flag. It was put on the street in order for them to trample it, and they walked around it instead. Big progress!’
Wow! The wonderful Iranian protesters refused to step on, or in any way denigrate, our Great American Flag. It was put on the street in order for them to trample it, and they walked around it instead. Big progress!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 13, 2020
Wrong. He’s talking like the Iranians are some kind of backwards animals who have to be trained to act the right way and respect the “Great American Flag.” (Why did he capitalize it?) That’s just more racist nonsense.
In an original post of the footage that Trump seems to be referring to, Alinejad — who is an advocate for Republicans and well-paid U.S. government contractor — wrote:
‘This should embarrassed Iranian regime & their propaganda funeral for #Soleimani where people were told to chant “Death To America”. Now people in Iran chanting “Death to Islamic Republic dictatorship.”’
Watch how Iranian students refuse to step on American & the flag of Israel.
This should embarrassed Iranian regime & their propaganda funeral for #Soleimani where people were told to chant “Death To America”.
Now people in Iran chanting “Death to Islamic Republic dictatorship.” pic.twitter.com/hTxDuxZeaB— Masih Alinejad 🏳️ (@AlinejadMasih) January 12, 2020
He’s haphazardly attempting to put on a show of managing a situation that he actually seems to know little about. It’s on par with his previous tweets in Persian meant to drum up support for his grand old American way among the Iranian protesters — although Twitter is banned in Iran. The White House didn’t think that one though, now did they?
Besides, it’s not like Trump is supporting the demonstrators in a tangible way. He’s posted some dramatic tweets, but in reality, just recently he spent days whining about wanting to order airstrikes against civilian cultural sites in the country. He has also imposed new sanctions on Iran after withdrawing from the nuclear deal signed in 2015, which was, in fact, working. Trump ripped it up (metaphorically) just to prove a point and brought the United States, Middle East, and world back to square one.
Check out Twitter’s response to Trump…
