The Islamic State has derided US President Donald Trump as a “stupid idiot” and said his rise to power was a sign of America’s bankruptcy.
Targeting Trump directly for the first time since he took ffice, the ISIS terror group in the 36-minute audio released by its spokesperson Abu Hasan al-Muhajir on Tuesday called him an Arabic term that means an “idiot”, saying the US President does not know anything about Islam, NBC News reported.
Terming the US as “bankrupt”, it said, “the sign of your elimination are now clearer to everyone, as the most clear of signs is that you are now ruled by a stupid idiot who does not know what Sham and Iraq are, or what Islam is, who continues to express his hatred and war against Islam”.
The propaganda said Trump has expressed his “hatred and war” against Islam, the report said.
Other translations of the statement replaced “stupid idiot” with “riff raff” or “harebrained”, it said. Al-sham is a term ISIS uses to describe a region that includes Syria. It appears to be the first time the Islamic State has referred to Trump since he took office.
ISIS, which controls large swaths of territories in Iraq and Syria, is currently being targeted by a US-led military coalition.
Trump has pledged to “totally obliterate ISIS,” which swept across parts of Iraq in 2014. Trump has been widely criticised in the past for his controversial statements on Islam. The ISIS statement does not appear to directly refer to Trump’s executive order temporarily banning people of six Muslim-majority countries from entering the US.