Iranian media compares Trump to Ahmadinejad amid Tillerson dismissal
Iranian media draw parallels between President Donald Trump and Iran’s former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad amid the dismissal of Rex Tillerson.
US President Donald Trump’s sudden firing of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has sparked comparisons in the Iranian media to the behavior of former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
On March 13, immediately after Trump announced the dismissal of Tillerson through his Twitter account, Iranian news outlets covered it extensively while many were reminded of Ahmadinejad’s 2010 firing of then Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki while the latter was on a trip to Senegal.
The moderate news site Entekhab said March 13, “The similarities of Mottaki's and Tillerson’s dismissals more than anything demonstrate the manner of governance by Trump and Ahmadinejad. Trump's and Ahmadinejad’s method [of governing] is based on populism. Excited speeches and using colloquial language, sudden decisions and unilateralism in decision-making are common qualities of these two [figures].”
Meanwhile, the ultra-conservative Javan newspaper, considered close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, described the dismissal of Tillerson as the result of Iran’s “resistance.”
