Trump’s new complaint about Iranians started with a far-right Iranian politician

The far-right always finds each other.

ADRIENNE MAHSA VARKIANI
JUL 3, 2018, 2:47 PM

President Donald Trump woke up on Tuesday and decided to complain about the number of Iranians who received U.S. citizenship during the Iranian nuclear negotiations. Trump’s complaints appear to be based on an article he read, which was based on another article, which was based on another article on the views of an Iranian hardline politician.

“Just out that the Obama administration granted citizenship, during the terrible Iran Deal negotiation, to 2,500 Iranians – including to government officials,” Trump tweeted. “How big (and bad) is that?”

He didn’t clarify if he was complaining about 2,500 Iranians over the course of three years, which is how long it took to negotiate the nuclear agreement.

Let’s first start with the obvious issue in this tweet, which is that there is no context to explain why Iranians getting citizenship is “big (and bad).” Coming from the president of the United States, this could lead to real consequences for Iranians living in the United States or those perceived to be Iranian.

But another big problem is that Trump isn’t seeking immigration data from his own government — say, from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) or the State Department, for example.

As Fox News acknowledged, DHS found that the number of Iranians who received U.S. citizenship actually decreased by about 8.6 percent from 2015 to 2016, when the Iran deal went into effect.

Read more
https://thinkprogress.org/trump-complains-2500-iranians-citizenship-mojtaba-zolnour-1d5eac16a396/