As much as President Trump’s decision to pull back on the Iran nuclear agreement draws mixed reviews nationwide and clearly irks European allies, one group that is surely cheering his move is the Iranian exile community in the United States.
This was evident from the responses and comments of participants in the Iran Freedom Convention in Washington, D.C., May 5-6. With more than 1,000 participants representing Iranian exiles from nearly all fifty states, the conclave at the Washington Grand Hyatt Hotel was almost unanimous in its preference of Trump’s policy toward Iran over that of President Barack Obama.
Wild cheers greeted pictures of Trump that were flashed on-screen above the stage. In addition, exiles who spoke to Newsmax made clear their preference for the incumbent president over his predecessor.
“We’re a lot better with Trump than with Obama,” Dr. Firouz Daneshgari, a physician at Case Western University in Ohio, told me. “The last administration tried to line-item appeasement and that didn’t work.”
Dr. Daneshgari likened the current theocratic regime in Tehran to “a tumor—you have to take it out carefully.”
Soolmaz Abooali, a daughter of Iranian immigrants and U.S. National Karate Team World Champion agreed.
“Obama’s appeasement enabled the current regime,” she said, “Trump has more of an iron fist toward Iran and perhaps the harsher policies he oversees will limit the actions of the regime — which offers a manipulated version of Islam.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
© 2026 Newsmax. All rights reserved.