By Steve Holland and Kanishka Singh
DALTON, Georgia, Oct 16 (Reuters) - US President Donald Trump made a joke about the popularity of the name Mohammad in the Muslim world as he mocked Iran's presidency during a campaign speech on Friday.
"You know, if you're in doubt about somebody's name from the Middle East, just say 'Mohammad,'" Trump told a crowd in Dalton, Georgia. "You have about a 65% 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, who often name their sons after the Prophet Mohammad, the founder of Islam.
Trump made the comment as he was discussing Iran during a rally in a hangar at Dalton Municipal Airport in Georgia, where he campaigned for Republican political candidates ahead of the November 3 midterm elections.
"Iran is the only country where nobody wants to be president," Trump said, then pretended to ask several people named Mohammad whether they wanted the job. Masoud Pezeshkian has been president of Iran since 2024.
The Georgia crowd gave the joke a muted response.
Rights advocates and Muslim advocacy groups have repeatedly criticized Trump for rhetoric that they say demonizes and mocks Muslims, immigrants and ethnic minorities.
He has escalated such rhetoric during the midterm campaign season, particularly against Somali and Muslim Americans including Muslim Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed and Representative Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat who came to the US as a Somali refugee.
Trump repeated his vow that Iran would never get a nuclear weapon, seven months after the United States and Israel launched a war on Tehran aimed in part at crippling its nuclear program.
An annual report by the Council on American Islamic Relations released earlier this year attributed rising Islamophobia in the US in part to Trump's crackdown on immigration and pro-Palestinian protests during his second term.
(Reporting by Steve Holland in Dalton, Georgia, and Kanishka Singh and Jarrett Renshaw in Washington; Editing by Sergio Non and Cynthia Osterman)
