Trump likely ‘smirked’ as 'crass' Iranian president lashed out at

If there’s a fitting image for this week’s U.N. theatrics, it’s Donald Trump smirking while Iran’s president ranted from the podium. Masoud Pezeshkian stood in front of the world and accused the United States and Israel of “attacking” Iran. That from a regime that bankrolls Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis, and chantwhere are the refs. The smirk wasn’t a lapse in diplomacy. It was the correct response to a professional victimhood performance.

The media will no doubt frame this as Trump being disrespectful on the world stage. But what exactly deserves respect? A regime that sends its proxies to murder civilians and then runs to the U.N. to play the aggrieved party? The “attacks” Pezeshkian means are targeted strikes on terrorist commanders and weapons facilities, not the region-wide campaign of violence Iran has been waging for decades. The only real outrage in that building was sitting at the podium. Trump simply reacted to the absurdity of it all.

That’s the thing Washington never gets about the foreign policy establishment’s rules. They want presidents to sit stone-faced through lectures from a regime that has American blood on its hands. Trump won’t do it. He doesn’t treat the U.N. as a sacred temple. He treats it as a room full of people, some of whom are enemy apologists and know it. He’s not going to pretend the mullahs deserve solemnity.

So let the commentators chew on the smirk. Meanwhile, Iran’s president had to look at a U.S. president who isn’t interested in paying homage to the dying global order. The smirk was the honest answer to a speech that deserved to be laughed at. It wasn’t undiplomatic. It was truthful. And that’s why it bothered everyone.