Trump jokes about Mohammad, mocks Iran presidency

At an Oct. 16 campaign rally in a hangar at Dalton Municipal Airport in Dalton, Georgia, President Donald Trump joked that if in doubt about somebody's name from the Middle East, just say Mohammad, adding there is about a 65% chance and that he has never been wrong. Discussing Iran, he said it is the only country where nobody wants to be president and pretended to ask several people named Mohammad whether they wanted the job. Masoud Pezeshkian has been Iran's president since 2024. The crowd gave a muted response. Trump reiterated that Iran would never obtain a nuclear weapon, seven months after the United States and Israel launched a war on Tehran aimed in part at crippling its nuclear program. Muslim and civil-rights advocacy groups have criticized Trump's rhetoric as targeting Muslims, immigrants and ethnic minorities. During the midterm campaign he has intensified such rhetoric against Somali and Muslim Americans, including Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Representative Ilhan Omar. A Council on American-Islamic Relations report earlier this year attributed rising Islamophobia in the US partly to Trump's immigration crackdown and response to pro-Palestinian protests. He was campaigning for Republican candidates ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms.