Trump expresses surprise at large attendance at funeral ceremony

**The Story's Account**

• Donald Trump clarified in this interview that he had expected the Iranian people to have negative feelings toward Ayatollah Khamenei.
• Trump attributed his change of understanding to his direct observation of the emotional reaction of the Iranian people at the funeral ceremony.
• The source of these statements has been named as Axios in all coverage.
• All five media outlets covering the story (Fars, Akharin Khabar, Khabar-e Sedavasima, Ensaf News, and Hamshahri Newspaper) published this quote without substantial differences in the original text.. **Coverage Difference**

Donald Trump, former president of the United States, stated in an interview with Axios that he was surprised to see Iranians crying at the funeral ceremony of Ayatollah Khamenei. Trump expressed that this emotional reaction contradicted his previous understanding, as he had assumed that the Iranian people harbored feelings of hatred toward him. This quote has been circulated in Iranian media outlets.

All five media outlets presented Trump's quote with identical severity and without adding additional interpretation or contextualization; none considered what political, social, or historical contexts might be necessary for a complete understanding of this quote. Ensaf News provided a slightly more detailed account and added the phrase "because he thought," while the others merely separated the text with punctuation marks (periods and semicolons).