Reporter Thrilled Trump Called Him 'Mr. Kurd'

The internet may have been insulted, but Rahim Rashidi was most definitely not
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 27, 2018 7:47 AM CDT

There were some gasps and raised eyebrows from Twitter after President Trump on Wednesday called upon a reporter during a news conference using the name "Mr. Kurd." Rahim Rashidi is not among the aghast, and his opinion matters more than most: He's Mr. Kurd. As the Washington Post reports, Rashidi, a Kurdish journalist who reports for Kurdistan 24, wanted to ask Trump about US relations with the Kurds, some 30 million stateless people who live across Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey, and have helped the US in the fight against ISIS. Trump said to him, "Yes, please, Mr. Kurd. Go ahead." Rashidi, frankly, was thrilled.

"I loved it, because all the time our identity is ignored by the Turkish government, by the Iranian government," he tells the Post. "We are proud of our struggle for democracy, for justice, for freedom. He made me so happy when he called me Mr. Kurd. It was a moment of respect for us, for me." Indeed, the Post notes that when it telephoned Rashidi late Wednesday, he picked up the phone with a new greeting: "Hello, this is Mr. Kurd." (More President Trump stories.)

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