US President Donald Trump mocked the popularity of the name Mohammad among Muslims while discussing Iran during a campaign rally in Dalton, Georgia, on Friday, drawing a muted response from the crowd.
“You know, if you’re in doubt about somebody’s name from the Middle East, just say ‘Mohammad’,” Trump told the audience. “You have about a 65 per cent chance. ‘Hello, Mohammad.’ I’ve done it for years now. I’ve never been wrong.”
Mohammad is one of the most common male names among Muslims, many of whom name their sons after Prophet Mohammad, the founder of Islam.
Trump Mocks Iran’s Presidency
Trump made the remarks while campaigning for Republican candidates ahead of the November 3 midterm elections. Speaking at a rally held in a hangar at Dalton Municipal Airport, he claimed that Iran was a country where nobody wanted to become president.
“Iran is the only country where nobody wants to be president,” he said, before pretending to ask several people named Mohammad whether they wanted the job.
Masoud Pezeshkian has been Iran’s president since 2024.
Trump also repeated his vow that Iran would never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon. The remarks came seven months after the United States and Israel launched a war against Tehran, aimed in part at weakening its nuclear programme.
Muslim Groups Criticise Trump’s Rhetoric
Rights advocates and Muslim organisations have repeatedly criticised Trump’s remarks about Muslims, immigrants and ethnic minorities, arguing that his rhetoric encourages hostility towards these communities.
During the current midterm campaign season, Trump has intensified his criticism of Somali and Muslim Americans, including Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who came to the United States as a Somali refugee.
Trump’s comments about Mohammad came as he campaigned in Georgia, a politically competitive state where Republican candidates are seeking support beyond his core voter base.
During the rally, protesters interrupted his speech to oppose the administration’s immigration policies. Trump suggested that Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff had paid the demonstrators to disrupt the event, referring to him as a “left-wing loser”.
An annual report released by the Council on American-Islamic Relations earlier this year linked rising Islamophobia in the United States, in part, to the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and its response to pro-Palestinian protests during his second term.
