The Iranian regime loudly insisted on Wednesday morning that the outcome of the U.S. presidential election does not matter to Tehran’s long-term plans because there was no real difference between victorious President-elect Donald Trump and defeated Vice President Kamala Harris from the Iranian perspective.
“The election of the U.S. president has nothing to do with us. The general policies of the U.S. and Iran are constant,” claimed regime spokeswoman Fatemeh Mohajerani at a press conference on Wednesday morning.
“It doesn’t matter who becomes the president in the United States because all the necessary planning has been made in advance,” she said.
Mohajerani said that “more than four decades of sanctions have made Iran hardened,” so it was not “worried about Trump’s re-election.” This would seem to deflate her previous point about there being no difference between Trump and Harris, the latter being the inheritor of Barack Obama’s “pallets of cash” approach to Iranian diplomacy.
“Basically, we do not see any difference between these two people. Sanctions have strengthened Iran’s internal power and we have the power to deal with new sanctions,” she insisted.
Iranian officials tend to vacillate between claiming that U.S. sanctions are meaningless and impotent, as Mohajerani did on Wednesday morning, and blaming U.S. sanctions for every problem in Iran.
Iran’s state-run PressTV claimed Iranian social media was contemptuous of both Trump and Harris, branding them “war criminals” for supporting Israel against the Iran-backed terrorists of Hamas and Hezbollah.
Many an Iranian sourpuss recalled Trump ordering the assassination of Iran’s terror master, Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in January 2020 while Soleimani was organizing attacks against Americans in Iraq. Others claimed Harris was doomed by her support for the “genocide of the Palestinian people.”
Unsurprisingly, a popular theme among Iranian social media feedback was the accusation that sinister Jews rigged the election to get rid of Harris, even though she was supposedly also a key accomplice to “genocide” in Gaza.
“Who will win the election? The same people who always win U.S. elections – Wall Street, the Pentagon, and Israel,” one Iranian netizen wailed.
“The reality is, no matter the analysis, the outcome remains the same – solid U.S. support for ‘Israel’s’ existence, which inherently means the erasure of ours,” said another, going the extra mile for antisemitism by putting Israel’s name in scare quotes.
PressTV had no patience for Iranians who were happy to see Trump win, but Reuters found plenty of them.
“I am so glad Trump won. I hope he continues his maximum pressure on the Islamic Republic and that it leads to the collapse of this regime,” an Iranian housewife named Zohre said in a telephone interview on Wednesday morning.
“Everyone is happy, and I am thrilled. Trump is a no-nonsense leader who will put pressure on the clerical rulers. This is good for the Iranian people who seek a democratic leadership,” said a student named Parastou.
Even a member of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) infamous Basij militia – the brutal gang charged with cracking down on the Iranian people when they challenge their theocratic regime – found a few good words to say about the return of Trump.
“Trump is a businessman. He knows Iran is powerful and can turn the Middle East to hell if attacked. He wants to end wars in the region not fuel it,” said Basij member Reza Mohammadi, offering an analysis that was ever so slightly above damning Trump with faint praise.
