Trump also echoed his frustration with the Iran nuclear deal, grumbling about how "terrible" it was for the Obama administration to help unlock $150 billion in frozen Iranian funds as part of a compromise on sanctions placed on the country.
He then dabbled in a familiar ethnic stereotype, casting the result of many months of concerted international diplomacy as a clever Persian trick:
It was negotiated by people that are poor negotiators against great negotiators. Persians being great negotiators, okay? It’s one of those things. You might be Persian. But the Iranians, frankly, are great negotiators.This is hardly the first time he has used such language.
“The Persians are great negotiators,” Trump told CNN in July when Iran and world powers, including the United States, looked close to forging a pact on Tehran's nuclear program. “They are laughing at the stupidity of the deal we’re making on nuclear. We should double up and triple up the sanctions and have them come to us. They are making an amazing deal.”
As WorldViews noted last year, the idea that "Persians are great negotiators," while seemingly flattering, is part of a centuries-old Western cliche of the wily Persian swindler who cannot be trusted. Trump is not alone in embracing this stereotype, especially in recent times.If I'm not familiar with the centuries-old cliché, I highly doubt that Donald Trump, whose understanding of Middle East nuances should be considered shaky at best, knows about it. Occam's razor would suggest that "stereotyping" never entered into Trump's "grumbling," and that his caviling amounted to an assertion of the obvious--that America was outfoxed and defenestrated by Iran's duplicitous (i.e. taqiyyah-spewing) and eliminationist-minded leadership.
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| A "wily Persian swindler"? Nope. A fanatical, fork-tongued twelver. |
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