The Trump Presidency
Geopolitics / Middle East

GRAYZONE PROJECT ... 'Trump Will Destroy Iran!' Saudis Cheer on Anti-Muslim President ... What appear to be Saudi bots or trolls are flooding social media with loving praise for Donald Trump for escalating aggression against Iran.

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

GRAYZONE PROJECT 'Trump Will Destroy Iran!' Saudis Cheer on Anti-Muslim President What appear to be Saudi bots or trolls are flooding social media with loving praise for Donald Trump for escalating aggression against Iran.

Photo Credit: Twitter screenshot

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.'

View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Follow صحيفة عكاظ ✔ @OKAZ_online #عكاظ.. الصفحة الأولى لعدد الثلاثاء الموافق 10 / 5 / 1438 هـ http://okaz.com.sa @OKAZ_online 6:53 PM - 6 Feb 2017 · Eastern, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 12 12 Retweets 7 7 likes

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.

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#تركي_الدخيل ✔ @TurkiAldakhil غردوا تحت هذا الهاشتاق بالانجليزي لشكر ترمب على مواجهته للارهاب الايراني #TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism 2:41 PM - 4 Feb 2017 837 837 Retweets 490 490 likes 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. View image on TwitterView image on Twitter Follow

500k طفيشآن @6fshan011 #TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism#ما_هو_حلمك_في_كلمتين Mr. Trump will end the Iranian terrorist expansionism in the world, and will bring peace 7:32 PM - 4 Feb 2017 549 549 Retweets 150 150 likes View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter Follow

ابو خالد 🇸🇦 @PoliticianSami #TrumpWarnsIranianRegime Trump will make the world great again! We support his action against Iran. #LoveBeyondFlags @realDonaldTrump 2:32 PM - 8 Feb 2017 631 631 Retweets 310 310 likes View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Follow

AlJlaad ⚔ @aljlaad90 IRAN is behind all conflicts and terrorism that's happening now in MiddleEast@realDonaldTrump @StateDept #TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism#Iran 1:08 PM - 6 Feb 2017 408 408 Retweets 127 127 likes Follow

رزان.. @iRazan_94 It's just a matter of time and #iran will face the sanctions from Trump ✋🏻. #TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism#JustinIsRacist@realDonaldTrump 8:36 PM - 4 Feb 2017 465 465 Retweets 171 171 likes 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. View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Follow

غادة ✨ @cute10women @realDonaldTrump will makes a funny story from #iran , and i will tell my son the story 😂.#TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism#AnittaNoMultishow 10:38 PM - 4 Feb 2017 337 337 Retweets 106 106 likes View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Follow حمّاد @hammad_1980 #TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism @realDonaldTrump 7:01 PM - 4 Feb 2017 Retweets likes Follow

500k طفيشآن @6fshan011 @realDonaldTrump This is true in every way😂 The Iranian Mullah terrorism is the problem the world is facing!#TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism 10:40 PM - 6 Feb 2017 960 960 Retweets 433 433 likes Even more extreme hashtags like #TrumpWillDestroyIran also became popular. View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Follow

بدويـھ ماركھ🔱 13K @roora___ #TrumpBookReport There is a new president in the #USA who will make the world great again, not like Obama. #TrumpWillDestroyIran 8:42 PM - 7 Feb 2017 394 394 Retweets 204 204 likes View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Follow

❤️EnSaN KwEs ܟ @ii70o #TrumpWillDestroyIran TRUMP YOU ARE THE HERO OF THE WORLD, WE WANT HISTORY WRITE HOW YOU FINISHED IRAN ONCE FOR ALL. #TrumpBookReport 8:47 PM - 7 Feb 2017 272 272 Retweets 79 79 likes View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Follow

الرياض @RiyadhCP @realDonaldTrump History will always remember you🇸🇦🇺🇸. End Iran terrorism in the Middle East. #TrumpWillDestroyIran #TrumpBookReport 8:37 PM - 7 Feb 2017 425 425 Retweets 220 220 likes 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. View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Follow

محمد الخالدي @mk_s121 #TrumpWillDestroyIran@realDonaldTrump Thanks a lot Mr.Trump,and always remember that saudi arabia stands with you in confronting terrorism 4:32 PM - 7 Feb 2017 231 231 Retweets 105 105 likes View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Follow

ولد فيصل @Ali112646 @realDonaldTramp he will stop Terrorism we should be with him to be alright .. #LoveBeyondFlags #TrumpWillDestroyIran 2:55 PM - 8 Feb 2017 258 258 Retweets 158 158 likes View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Follow

عطية المرشدي @atea_almarshade Iran will be destroyed by the hero of the next generation,Mr.Trump @realDonaldTrump @realDonaldTrump #TrumpWillDestroyIran #Iran @StateDept 1:41 PM - 7 Feb 2017 310 310 Retweets 96 96 likes 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. View image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on TwitterView image on Twitter Follow

مغردون للوطن @wa6ani_1 What is the secret of the silence of the #US and the West media after #Iran’s involvement in 9/11was confirmed#TrumpWarnsIranianTerrorism 3:31 PM - 4 Feb 2017 58 58 Retweets 25 25 likes

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.

Ben Norton is a reporter for AlterNet's Grayzone Project. You can follow him on Twitter at @BenjaminNorton.