Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Trump claims he made Iranians stop chanting ‘Death to America’

The claim comes as Iran is promoting a new messaging app that has 'Death to America' emojis

Clark Mindock
New York
Thursday 26 April 2018 11:39 EDT
Comments
Donald Trump: Iranians no longer chant 'death to America'

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

President Donald Trump says that he thinks he was able to help French President Emmanuel Macron see his point of view on the Iran nuclear deal — and that his style of international diplomacy has stopped Iranians from chanting “Death to America!”

“I can say it form my standpoint, but he is viewing - I believe - Iran a lot differently than he did before he walked into the Oval Office, and I think that’s important,” Mr Trump said on Fox & Friends of Mr Macron, who visited Washington this week. “He understand where I’m coming from with respect to Iran. Iran is a real problem for this country. The president made a horrible deal - when I say the president I’m talking about past administration - made a horrible deal.”

Mr Trump continued to claim that the United States is giving Iran $150bn - a claim he frequently makes, but one that is misleading because the money he is talking about technically already belongs to Iran but is frozen under economic sanctions - for the deal, even though Iranians are disrespecting the US.

“Giving $150bn giving $1.8bn in cash — in actual cash carried out in barely and boxes from aeroplanes — it’s inconceivable, $1.8bn dollars,” Mr Trump said, referring in that $1.8bn figure to $1.9bn that the National Iranian Oil Company was previously restricted from collecting from Shell for delivering crude oil supplies. “And all they do is scream ‘Death to America! Death to America!’”

Except not anymore, he said.

“And, by the way, they’re not screaming it so much anymore. They were screaming it with him, they don’t scream it with me,” Mr Trump said. “We haven’t seen their little boats circling our ships in the ocean lately because they know if they do circle the ships they’re not going to be there very longer.”

While the US military has noted a shift from Iran’s practice of taunting American ships during Mr Trump’s presidency, it is less clear that saying “Death to America” has gone out of vogue in the Islamic country.

Just this week, the BBC reported that Iran is promoting a new messaging app for its citizens that is domestically made and comes complete with emojis wishing death to America, Israel, and Freemasons.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in