‘Trump; A Wise Guy Pretending to Be Stupid’

Hossein Shariatmadari, the managing editor of conservative Iranian daily Kayhan, in an article on Tuesday said Trump is actually a wise guy who pretends to be stupid.

What follows are highlights of his article:

Since November 2016, when Donald Trump was elected as the President of the United States, a suspicious movement in the US and Europe insisted on introducing him as a full-fledged stupid person who has unexpectedly become the US president! A group of others inside our own country (Iran) are approving them, saying that the president of the United States is a stupid, dangerous and unpredictable politician. They conclude that the Islamic Republic should avoid challenging and confronting him, because at any moment, Trump could take an extreme measure and adopt a disastrous decision against our country!

But is Trump, as alleged, a full-fledged stupid person?

Two weeks ago, the American Axios news website reported a meeting between leading US officials at the White House, at which Secretary of Defence James Mattis, Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, and the United States’ Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer attended. The agenda of this meeting was to take a decision over Washington’s continuing or leaving the US trade agreement with South Korea. At the meeting, Donald Trump tells the Trade Representative that during the negotiations with the other side he must tell them Trump is stupid and he may withdraw from the deal at any moment!

The fact is that Trump has not accidentally become the US President overnight. This comes as some try to introduce him as an exception in the diplomatic history of the United States! He has passed a multi-stage selection process by the Republican Party of America. Donald Trump was the nominee of the US Republicans and has been selected and introduced in a multi-stage process. So it is very childish to imagine that a stupid person could pass through all multiple filters of the party and be introduced as the final candidate. It is noteworthy that several prominent Republican officials, who have been involved in the selection of Trump, also called him stupid. Why?!

Those who introduce Trump as a stupid person, and based on this conclude that we need to tolerate him, should answer this question: Which of the measures taken by Trump since he took office were against the benefits of the United States, or in other words were not a form of bullying or extortion?!

If he is stupid, he must have taken at least one decision against the interests of the Americans.

The numerous evidence mentioned leaves little doubt that the claim to present Trump as a stupid person is a trick to intimidate US counterparties, and as Axios has revealed, he is created to gain further concessions from others.

Today, there exists a serious concern that the above-mentioned movement (inside Iran) may be tricked by the US to introduce Trump as a crazy person as well, and believe the claim on his silliness, to prepare the ground for something similar to what we saw during the nuclear talks. With a justification that the other side is a full-fledged stupid person they should not surrender to US bullying and extortions. However, the importance of the recent strategic stance of the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) can be understood clearly at this point.

A few days ago, Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari, the chief-commander of the IRGC, warned the United States that if the Revolution Guards are placed on the list of terrorist groups, the IRGC would treat the US military as a terrorist group like ISIS.

Trump must pay for his pretensions of being stupid. He has repeatedly witnessed that the IRGC never makes false claims and keeps its pledge. In case the US army replaces ISIS, there would be basically no reason to let it escape hard-hitting punishments like those suffered by ISIS.