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What appear to be Saudi bots or trolls are flooding social media with loving praise for Donald Trump for escalating aggression against Iran.
The extremist dictatorial regime in Saudi Arabia is confident that it has a friend in the White House.
Far-right President Donald Trump immediately kicked off his reign by ramping up aggression against Iran. In just two weeks, his administration, which is chock-full of vehemently anti-Iran hawks, imposed further sanctions on the country, publicly put it "on notice," and accused it of being the world's largest sponsor of terrorism.
Gulf monarchies, which have long seen Iran as their greatest enemy, are rejoicing. Saudi Arabia, in particular, can hardly contain its excitement. Scores of what appear to be fake Saudi social media accounts are portraying the racist, anti-Muslim U.S. president as a noble gladiator, gleefully gloating, "Trump will destroy Iran!"
President Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis have made it clear that they are going to pursue even closer ties with Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the Saudi monarchy, which frequently speaks of itself as the supposed protector of Islam, has offered no criticisms of Trump's ban on refugees, nor has it said anything negative about his barring migrants from seven Muslim-majority countries. The fact that the Trump administration's ban targets the primary enemies of Gulf regimes (namely, Iran, Iraq, and Syria) certainly should not go unnoticed.
For three days in a row, the front page story of the major Saudi regime newspaper Okaz highlighted Trump's anti-Iranian statements. Okaz is one of the most popular newspapers in the country, and is closely linked to the Saudi royal family. On February 7, bold letters appeared on the front page reading, "Trump: Iran is the 'number one' terrorist."
#عكاظ.. الصفحة الأولى لعدد الثلاثاء الموافق 10 / 5 / 1438 هـ https://t.co/hiZirp74eV@OKAZ_online pic.twitter.com/ywetpUezkA
— صحيفة عكاظ (@OKAZ_online) February 6, 2017
Turki Aldakhil, head of the Saudi media giant Al Arabiya, similarly applauded the far-right, anti-Muslim president for ramping up aggression against supposed "Iranian terrorism." On Twitter, Aldakhil told his nearly 4 million followers to tweet using the English hashtag #TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism to thank Trump.
غردوا تحت هذا الهاشتاق بالانجليزي لشكر ترمب على مواجهته للارهاب الايراني #TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism
— #تركي_الدخيل (@TurkiAldakhil) February 4, 2017
Aldakhil was by no means alone. He was part of a wave of Twitter users—many with photos of the Saudi flag and absolute monarch King Salman as their profile pictures—who praised Trump for his threats against Iran.
It appears that at least some of these accounts are bots or paid trolls. Many of those tweeting anti-Iranian, pro-Trump messages like this are full of Saudi propaganda and little other content. They recycle the same memes and talking points and use completely unrelated trending hashtags like #SuperBowl. Many were also only just recently created and already have thousands of largely fake followers, despite having only tweeted a few hundred times.
#TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism#ما_هو_حلمك_في_كلمتين
Mr. Trump will end the Iranian terrorist expansionism in the world, and will bring peace pic.twitter.com/FR8bqXMv8F
— 500k طفيشآن (@6fshan011) February 5, 2017
#TrumpWarnsIranianRegime
Trump will make the world great again! We support his action against Iran. #LoveBeyondFlags @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/GzC9YfVqoK
— ابو خالد (@PoliticianSami) February 8, 2017
IRAN is behind all conflicts and terrorism that's happening now in MiddleEast@realDonaldTrump @StateDept #TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism#Iran pic.twitter.com/eDJEcpVjIN
— AlJlaad ⚔ (@aljlaad90) February 6, 2017
It's just a matter of time and #iran will face the sanctions from Trump .
#TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism#JustinIsRacist@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/NNh1CtCp8M
— رزان.. (@iRazan_94) February 5, 2017
Users portrayed the far-right anti-Muslim U.S. president as a brave knight in gilded armor, while depicting Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as an ant and Ayatollah Khamenei as a murdered dragon.
@realDonaldTrump will makes a funny story from #iran , and i will tell my son the story .#TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism#AnittaNoMultishow pic.twitter.com/3ymsLy2usc
— غادة (@cute10women) February 5, 2017
#TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism @realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/hFPUOgZxRx
— حمّاد (@hammad_1980) February 5, 2017
@realDonaldTrump
This is true in every way
The Iranian Mullah terrorism is the problem the world is facing!#TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism pic.twitter.com/l3TcDKvcO4
— 500k طفيشآن (@6fshan011) February 7, 2017
Even more extreme hashtags like #TrumpWillDestroyIran also became popular.
#TrumpBookReport
There is a new president in the #USA who will make the world great again, not like Obama. #TrumpWillDestroyIran pic.twitter.com/NUQRjx3aFx
— بدويـھ 13K (@roora___) February 8, 2017
#TrumpWillDestroyIran
TRUMP YOU ARE THE HERO OF THE WORLD, WE WANT HISTORY WRITE HOW YOU FINISHED IRAN ONCE FOR ALL. #TrumpBookReport pic.twitter.com/Dymk1M28lF
— EnSaN KwEs (@ii70o) February 8, 2017
@realDonaldTrump History will always remember you End Iran terrorism in the Middle East. #TrumpWillDestroyIran #TrumpBookReport pic.twitter.com/ANdQkpH4jd
— الرياض (@RiyadhCP) February 8, 2017
Many of the people responding to them with praise for Trump and Saudi Arabia likewise only have dozens of tweets and appear to be fake accounts.
#TrumpWillDestroyIran@realDonaldTrump
Thanks a lot Mr.Trump,and always remember that saudi arabia stands with you in confronting terrorism pic.twitter.com/5iicjKYrwG
— محمد الخالدي (@mk_s121) February 7, 2017
@realDonaldTramp he will stop Terrorism we should be with him to be alright .. #LoveBeyondFlags #TrumpWillDestroyIran pic.twitter.com/0MGn2Mrzml
— ولد فيصل (@Ali112646) February 8, 2017
Iran will be destroyed by the hero of the next generation,Mr.Trump @realDonaldTrump @realDonaldTrump #TrumpWillDestroyIran #Iran @StateDept pic.twitter.com/Fvt7a1IduP
— عطية المرشدي (@atea_almarshade) February 7, 2017
Some accounts even tried to link Iran to the 9/11 attacks—although 15 of the 19 hijackers were Saudi citizens, declassified pages from Congress' 2002 joint inquiry show links between the attackers and Saudi Arabia, and convicted plotter Zacarias Moussaoui confessed in sworn testimony to American authorities that members of the Saudi royal family had funded al-Qaeda before the attack.
What is the secret of the silence of the #US and the West media after #Iran’s involvement in 9/11was confirmed#TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism pic.twitter.com/Z8JmokWwHb
— مغردون للوطن (@wa6ani_1) February 4, 2017
Al-Qaeda and ISIS are extremist Sunni militant groups that consider Muslims from the Shia minority sect to be non-Muslim apostates. Iran is one of the few Shia-majority countries, and has in fact been a leading force in the fighting against ISIS. (Iraq also has a majority Shia population, and Syria and Yemen have large Shia minorities. All of these countries are targeted by Trump's Muslim ban.)
While the Trump administration and his Gulf supporters may accuse Iran of being a large sponsor of terrorism, secret internal U.S. documents have acknowledged that Saudi Arabia is the largest supporter of extremist Sunni-jihadist groups in the world. Moreover, a leaked 2014 email from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, citing Western intelligence sources, revealed that U.S. allies Saudi Arabia and Qatar have supported ISIS.
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