President Trump tweeted his support for Iranian protesters on Saturday — in English and in Farsi.
The commander in chief, known for his random capitalization and spelling on the platform, collected nearly a hundred retweets from a pair of tweets in Farsi commending the “brave and suffering Iranian people” who protesting Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“I have stood with you since the beginning of my presidency and my government will continue to stand with you,” read one of the tweets from the president. “We are following your protests closely. Your courage is inspiring.”
Thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of Tehran Saturday following the Iranian government’s acknowledgment that is unintentionally shot down a Ukranian airplane, killing all 176 passengers aboard–including 82 Iranians.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the US’s decision to kill Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani as a triggering point that led to the tragedy.
“Human error at time of crisis caused by US adventurism led to disaster,” he tweeted late Friday.
Some on social media questioned the genuineness of Trump’s messages, considering Iran was on his “Muslim ban” list rolled out at the beginning of his presidency.
But Saeed Ghasseminejad, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank has pushed for tough sanctions on Iran, claimed on the platform that Trump’s tweet is “already the most liked Persian tweet in the history of Twitter.”
