US President Donald Trump joked about the popularity of the name Mohammad among Muslims while mocking Iran’s presidency during a campaign rally in Georgia on Friday.
“You know, if you’re in doubt about somebody’s name from the Middle East, just say ‘Mohammad,’” Trump told the crowd in Dalton. “You have about a 65% chance. ‘Hello, Mohammad.’ I’ve done it for years now. I’ve never been wrong.”
Trump made the remarks while discussing Iran at a rally held in a hangar at Dalton Municipal Airport, where he was campaigning for Republican candidates ahead of the Nov 3 midterm elections.
“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.
Iran has been led by President Masoud Pezeshkian since 2024.
The crowd responded to the joke with limited enthusiasm.
Mohammad is among the most common male names in the Muslim world, with many Muslim families naming their sons after the Prophet Mohammad, the founder of Islam.
Trump’s remarks come amid repeated criticism from rights advocates and Muslim advocacy groups, who accuse him of using rhetoric that demonises or mocks Muslims, immigrants and ethnic minorities.
He has intensified such rhetoric during the midterm campaign season, particularly in remarks targeting Somali and Muslim Americans, including Muslim Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who came to the United States as a Somali refugee.
During the rally, Trump also reiterated his vow that Iran would never obtain a nuclear weapon, seven months after the United States and Israel launched a war against Tehran aimed partly at crippling its nuclear programme.
An annual report released earlier this year by the Council on American-Islamic Relations attributed rising Islamophobia in the United States partly to the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and pro-Palestinian protests during his second term.
