Trump claims he made Iranians stop chanting ‘Death to America’

President Donald Trump says that he thinks he was able to help French President Emmanuel Macron see his point of view on the Iran nuclear deal — and that his style of international diplomacy has stopped Iranians from chanting “Death to America!”

“I can say it form my standpoint, but he is viewing - I believe - Iran a lot differently than he did before he walked into the Oval Office, and I think that’s important,” Mr Trump said on Fox & Friends of Mr Macron, who visited Washington this week. “He understand where I’m coming from with respect to Iran. Iran is a real problem for this country. The president made a horrible deal - when I say the president I’m talking about past administration - made a horrible deal.”

Mr Trump continued to claim that the United States is giving Iran $150bn - a claim he frequently makes, but one that is misleading because the money he is talking about technically already belongs to Iran but is frozen under economic sanctions - for the deal, even though Iranians are disrespecting the US.

“Giving $150bn giving $1.8bn in cash — in actual cash carried out in barely and boxes from aeroplanes — it’s inconceivable, $1.8bn dollars,” Mr Trump said, referring in that $1.8bn figure to $1.9bn that the National Iranian Oil Company was previously restricted from collecting from Shell for delivering crude oil supplies. “And all they do is scream ‘Death to America! Death to America!’”

Except not anymore, he said.

“And, by the way, they’re not screaming it so much anymore. They were screaming it with him, they don’t scream it with me,” Mr Trump said. “We haven’t seen their little boats circling our ships in the ocean lately because they know if they do circle the ships they’re not going to be there very longer.”

While the US military has noted a shift from Iran’s practice of taunting American ships during Mr Trump’s presidency, it is less clear that saying “Death to America” has gone out of vogue in the Islamic country.

Just this week, the BBC reported that Iran is promoting a new messaging app for its citizens that is domestically made and comes complete with emojis wishing death to America, Israel, and Freemasons.