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The former U.S. president’s election is treated as a foregone conclusion, with the six contenders clashing over who is best suited to handling him.
Throughout Iran’s presidential campaign, in debates, rallies and speeches, a singular presence has hovered: Donald J. Trump.
To hear the six candidates tell it, the former president’s victory in the 2024 White House race is a foregone conclusion. The urgent question facing Iranian voters as they go to the polls on Friday, they say, is who is best suited to deal with him.
They hardly ever mention President Biden, and they never bring up the many polls suggesting that the American election will be extremely close. Instead, Mr. Trump’s name is invoked again and again.
“Wait and you will see what will happen when Trump comes,” one candidate, the cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi, said during a recent televised debate. “We have to get ready for negotiations.” Another candidate, Alireza Zakani, Tehran’s mayor, accused his rivals at a debate of having “Trump-phobia,” insisting that only he could manage him.
In one of Mr. Pourmohammadi’s campaign posters, he and Mr. Trump are eye to eye, staring each other down. “The person who can stand in front of Trump is me,” it reads.
Iranians have ample reason to be wary of another Trump presidency. It was Mr. Trump who unilaterally pulled the United States out of Iran’s deal with world powers over its nuclear program, even though U.N. nuclear inspectors had repeatedly confirmed that Iran was complying with its commitments. Mr. Biden has made efforts to revive the deal since taking office, to no avail.
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