ISIS spokesman says the US is 'being run by an idiot' in first statement on Trump
ISIS spokesman Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajer said in an audio recording released Tuesday on the encrypted messaging app Telegram that the US is "bankrupt" and "being run by an idiot," according to Reuters.
Muhajer also told Americans: "The signs of your demise are evident to every eye."
"There is no more evidence than [that] you being run by an idiot who does not know what Syria or Iraq or Islam is," Muhajer said in the statement.
ISIS leadership has not previously addressed Trump.
But its supporters seemed to cheer a Trump presidency - last year Foreign Affairs magazine analyzed ISIS' online channels and interviewed a dozen supporters and defectors who said Trump would "lead the United States on a path to self-destruction."
Then earlier this year, ISIS members reportedly branded Trump's executive order on immigration "the Blessed Ban" as it seemingly proved that the West is at war with Islam.
Malcolm Nance, a terrorism expert and veteran military-intelligence officer, told Business Insider last year that Trump was "ISIS' preferred candidate" because he's "unstable."
It's not uncommon for ISIS to target the president of the United States in its propaganda messaging.
ISIS experts pointed out before the election that the terrorist group actually talked about President Barack Obama more than Trump.
In its statement, ISIS also sought to assert its strength and encourage followers to keep fighting.
"This is about convincing would-be terrorists of the group's strength, durability and thus worthiness of support," Michael S. Smith II, a terrorism analyst who studies ISIS propaganda, told Business Insider. "For those willing to drink that toxic cocktail, this all translates to an incredibly effective framework for inciting violence that entails the use of an authoritative figure - a caliph - and his proxies like al-Muhajir to command violence globally."