'Iranians for Trump' movement launches ahead of US elections

A group of Iranian Americans have launched ‘Iranians for Trump’, a movement to mobilize support for presidential candidate Donald Trump in the upcoming US elections.

Sarah Raviani, the spokesperson for the group’s English division, is the opposite of what a stereotypical traditional Trump supporter, often portrayed in mainstream media, would be.

She’s young, from generation Z, educated, and comes from an immigrant background. Her family fleeing shortly after the clerical establishment, once led by Ruhollah Khomeini, ousted the monarchy and created the Islamic Republic of Iran in 1979.

“We think that President Trump is the best option for our community to support the policies that we want and we need for freedom and democracy in Iran and for protecting and safeguarding American national security,” said Raviani.

The issue of national security and policies implemented during the first Trump administration on Iran such as pulling out of the JCPOA nuclear deal, the listing of the IRGC as a terrorist entity and the assassination of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, proved to Raviani that the former President was tough on the Iranian regime.

National security and international relations analyst Shayan Sami’i said the Biden-Harris administration's policies towards Iran have tilted some Iranian Americans towards Trump.

“Disillusionment with the Democrats, a perception of strength by Trump, and the perception of an “appeasement” approach toward the Islamic Republic by the Biden Administration makes Iranian Americans gravitate toward Trump.”

The Biden administration issued a waiver in 2023 for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar, in exchange for the release of five American citizens detained in Iran. As part of the deal, the administration also agreed to release five Iranian citizens in the United States. Republicans point to the fact that the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, launched by Iran-backed Hamas, happened shortly after the release of these funds.

The mentality of the Iranian American voter is also influenced by the history of the Islamic Revolution.

The Islamic Revolution happened under during the Jimmy Carter's Democratic administration, meaning Iranians historically have been weary of the Democrats, said Sami’i.

“The 1979 Islamic Revolution occurred during a Democratic party administration and Democratic administrations were harsher on Iran’s monarchy, making Republicans appear as their true friends. However, Republican presidents, just like their Democratic counterparts, have provided nothing more than lip service and back-pedaling. They have stated good and heart-warming words but no concrete action.”

The “tough” guy image of Trump is often seen as big win for the Iranian Americans whose way of thinking is valuing toughness. This especially applies to those who fled at the start of the revolution, having great fear of the Islamic Republic, Sami’i told Iran International.

Nicole Namdar, a 35-year-old business advisor from Great Neck, NY, now living in Florida, is Iranian Jewish and she’s voting for Trump.

She’s a liberal when it comes to social issues, but she often feels the Democrats respond ‘too little, too late’ and are ‘blind to the realities’ of the threat of the Islamic Republic. Namdar said as a Jewish person, who lost her homeland of Iran to the revolution, she said she needs to feel safe in the land her family came to seek refuge.

“I don’t want to live through an Islamic revolution that my family lost their country to,” said Namdar.

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Behnam Ben Taleblu, said while no group is a monolith, the social impact of Trump’s Iran policy has earned him support from a wide verity of Iranian Americans.

“The breaking of taboos to include vocally and vociferously supporting the Iranian people in every iteration of their protests against the regime, killing Iran’s chief terrorist Qassem Soleimani, and unilaterally reimposing sanctions on the regime to rob it of revenues has earned the former president deep support from broad swaths of the Iranian American community,” said Taleblu.

While political engagement and participation is key in any election, Iranian Americans are not going to have significant impact on the outcome of the election, according to Arash Ghafouri , the CEO of Statis Consulting.

In the previous election, according to a poll by Zogby Research Services, 87 percent of Iranian Americans were registered to vote in the US. Of that number, 52 percent are Democrats and 8 percent are Republicans. But 40 percent identify themselves as either independent or have no party affiliation.

Raviani believes that has shifted significantly in the past 4 years and gave her own personal experience of an Iranian American activist who went from being a staunch Democrat, a never Trump voter, to now being one of his biggest supporters.

“I see a lot of the community has shifted into becoming single issue voters, and this happened as a result of the uprising in 2022 in Iran. And like I said, a lot of Iranian Americans identified as either apolitical Democratic voters or independents.”

Click on YouTube Iran Internationa's Podcast playlist to watch the full episode of this week's special edition of Eye for Iran from Washington DC.