{"id":7458,"date":"2026-07-14T21:39:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=7458"},"modified":"2026-07-14T21:39:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:39:06","slug":"trump-congratulated-iraqs-prime-minister-on-election-he-wasnt-on-the-ballot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=7458","title":{"rendered":"Trump congratulated Iraq\u2019s prime minister on election. He wasn\u2019t on the ballot."},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump meets with Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh Kadhim al-Zaidi in the Oval Office on Tuesday. (Saul Loeb\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption>\n<\/figure>\n

President Donald Trump repeatedly congratulated Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh Kadhim al-Zaidi on Monday for his victory in a \u201chighly competitive\u201d election during his first visit to the White House.<\/p>

Read more Supreme Court Justice Kagan remembers Lindsey Graham ahead of testimony<\/a><\/p>\n

In fact, though, the political newcomer was never on the ballot.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a fantastic champion, a new champion, and he won the election very soundly, very conclusively, and he wasn\u2019t favored,\u201d Trump said, introducing Zaidi in the Oval Office. \u201cBut by the time they got to know him, he ended up winning, and he\u2019s going to be there for a long time.\u201d<\/p>\n

In January, Trump threatened<\/a> to \u201cno longer help\u201d Iraq if the government moved forward with Maliki, throwing the country into a constitutional deadlock. Iraq\u2019s political forces sought a candidate viewed as relatively neutral amid the U.S. war with Iran. Zaidi was widely regarded as a consensus candidate, following a career that included banking and running the supply of goods for Iraq\u2019s government food basket program, which serves millions.<\/p>

Read more Trump officials seek public input to overhaul Medicare payment system<\/a><\/p>\n

Catch up quickly every weekday morning with a rundown of the 7 most important and interesting stories. <\/i>Sign up for The 7 newsletter<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>

Read more Pro-Palestinian protester sues Trump administration, citing KKK Act<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Donald Trump repeatedly congratulated Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh Kadhim al-Zaidi on his victory in a \u201chighly competitive\u201d election. There was no such victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7456,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump congratulated Iraq\u2019s prime minister on election. He wasn\u2019t on the ballot. - Moving Insider USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=7458\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump congratulated Iraq\u2019s prime minister on election. He wasn\u2019t on the ballot. - Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"President Donald Trump repeatedly congratulated Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Faleh Kadhim al-Zaidi on his victory in a \u201chighly competitive\u201d election. There was no such victory.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/?p=7458\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Moving Insider USA\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-14T21:39:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/movinginsiderusa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/9734119cc57a0f2b255f10b325894c83-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7458#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/?p=7458\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/movinginsiderusa.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/22d40ab81790f6a361021763bb56ef03\"},\"headline\":\"Trump congratulated Iraq\u2019s prime minister on election. 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