The most liked Persian-language tweet of all time came from an unlikely source.
The winner is not Ayatollah Khamenei, the Islamic Republic's octogenarian supreme leader, who regularly posts virulently anti-Israel, anti-Semitic and anti-Western content on X.
Surprisingly, the winners are much closer to home.
On January 11, 2020, former President Donald Trump Tweet in Farsi He offered condolences to Iran's “brave and suffering people” after Iranian regime forces shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight PS75 minutes after it took off from Tehran airport, killing all 176 people on board.
The fateful flight, carrying mostly Iranian, Canadian and Ukrainian passengers, came just hours after Iran launched a ballistic missile attack on an Iraqi base housing US troops.
Iranian officials later admitted that the civilian aircraft had been mistaken for a cruise missile.
At the time Trump's tweet, which garnered more than 277,000 likes, was posted, Iranians were taking to the streets of Iran to protest the regime's attack on a civilian airliner and call for Ayatollah Khamenei to step down.
“I have stood with you since I took office, and my administration will continue to stand with you,” Trump pledged to the Iranian people.
Since then, many Iranian Americans have given Trump back, praising him for understanding the plight of ordinary Iranians and taking an aggressive stance against Tehran's clerical leaders.
Four years later, in early September, with less than two months to go until the US presidential election, a new Iranian-American movement has emerged to return President Trump to the White House.
Exercise is Iranians support Trump Sara Labiani, the movement's co-founder and English-language spokesperson, said it happened because “there was no established coalition representing the voices of Iranian immigrants.” The Post.
Rabiani added that most Iranians who fled their home country around the time of the 1979 revolution and settled in the United States were not politically active, being Democrats or independents, but that many were gravitating to the Republican Party during Trump's first term.
“We support President Trump because he is holding the Iranian regime accountable,” Labiani said, adding that the aggressive “maximum pressure” Iran policy that Trump adopted during his first term helped to contain the regime.
President Trump's policy toward Iran included imposing sanctions to weaken the Iranian regime and designating Iran's militant wing, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a terrorist organization.
Trump also ordered a drone strike in January 2020 to kill Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, considered the second most powerful man in Iran after the ayatollahs and in charge of the regime's tactical weapons and intelligence support to regional proxy allies, including Hezbollah and Hamas.
Farnaz Merkley, a Trump supporter, said she supports Trump because he is the only presidential candidate who can guarantee her family's safety.
“I participated Iranians support Trump “As a mother, I want a safe, peaceful and prosperous America,” said Ms. Markley, a Northern California real estate agent who left Iran when she was 10 years old. The Post.
Merkley added that Democrats are aligned with the Islamic regime's “policy of appeasement, which continues to ease sanctions and release billions of dollars that fund terrorism around the world.”
Nasim Behrouz, co-founder and Farsi spokesman, Iranian Trump supporter (not officially part of the Trump campaign) The Biden administration's Iran policy has been a spectacular failure.
“President Biden and Vice President Harris don't understand the Iranian regime,” said Behrouz, who was born and raised in Iran, noting that the past two Democratic administrations tried to open channels of communication with Iran in the complacency of hoping that the Iranian regime would change its behavior. “We've seen very weak leadership over the past four years. Weak leadership and appeasement policies have only enriched the regime.”
Iran's National Democratic Union survey resultsThe Washington, DC-based nonprofit suggests that aggression, not restraint, is the only language the Islamic Republic understands.
Unlike the Trump administration's first term, executions in Iran, the Iranian regime's military spending, and its nuclear weapons development program have all accelerated significantly under the Obama and Biden administrations.
In 2023, Iran's execution count soars to 838This is the highest figure in nearly a decade and an increase from 576 cases the previous year.
Behrouz said he and other like-minded Iranians were attracted to Trump's combative stance against destructive ideologies, including radical Islam and far-left ideology.
“I saw what happened in my country, Iran, 45 years ago. [with the Islamic Revolution] And we are seeing the same dangers looming in the Western world,” she said.
Looking ahead to the Nov. 5 presidential election, Labiani fears that if Harris takes power, further damaging concessions to Tehran will be made.
“Those advising Harris have built careers around a failed Iran policy,” she said. “Her national security adviser, Philip Gordon, wants to continue negotiating with the administration. He has said regime change is not a realistic option and that the administration should instead be 'contained' – that's appeasement.”
A return of President Trump to the White House would likely result in the reinstatement of tougher sanctions against Iran, a reality the Iranian regime seems to be actively avoiding.
That may be the reason Tehran hacked the Trump campaign Early August.
A month earlier, U.S. officials Iran detects plot to assassinate President Trump.
Jonathan Harounoff is author of the upcoming book “Unveiled: Inside Iran's #WomanLifeFreedom Revolt.”
