Trump’s Slams Iran About Human Rights, But Spares Allies

Four Tweets About Human Rights Since Elected, All Were About Iran

In publicly condemning Iran for its reaction to the protests of the past week, President Trump has repeatedly made reference to human rights concerns. Human rights is not an issue often  mentioned by the administration.

The issue of Iran jailing protesters, and using force against some of them, is a concern that’s hardly unique to Iran, President Trump himself has provoked larger protests in Palestine, and Israel’s crackdown has involved similar mass arrests and several killings.

Countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia similarly have what would be fairly described as calamitous human rights records, but neither has faced serious criticism from President Trump either.

Of some 2,900 Tweets since taking office, human rights have been mentioned by President Trump all of four times. Every single mention was related to Iran. Though President Trump has long expressed interest in “confronting” Iran, it seems human rights concerns begin and end to the extent he can use them as a pretext to rail against the Iranian government.

Author: Jason Ditz

Jason Ditz is Senior Editor for Antiwar.com. He has 20 years of experience in foreign policy research and his work has appeared in The American Conservative, Responsible Statecraft, Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Washington Times, and the Detroit Free Press.