Trump-style 'Make Syria Great Again' billboard in Damascus draws outrage, mockery

A billboard in the Syrian capital Damascus reading ‘Make Syria Great Again’ has been greeted with mockery and outrage, with people commenting on the inappropriateness of the slogan.

A photo widely circulated on social media showed the message, which mimicked Donald Trump’s notorious catchphrase, on a sign over an underpass in the Syrian capital.

It featured the Syrian flag – widely associated with the 2011 uprising against deposed President Bashar al-Assad’s regime - and bore the logo of the Syrian American Alliance, a Syrian advocacy group based in the US.

Underneath the slogan, the billboard featured a message in Arabic saying "you have friends in America who are working with you for the future of Syria".

Its appearance seems to have coincided with a visit to Syria by US Republican Congressman Cory Mills.

Rime Allaf, a Syrian author and political analyst shared the photo on Facebook, commenting: "No disrespect to well-meaning people, but I cannot think of anything more cringe than this slogan. It checks every ‘don’t’ box in communication terms."

Sara Ajlyakin, the deputy director of the Syrian news platform Al-Jumhuriya, gave a much angrier reaction.

"What grotesque irony. What unfathomable tone-deafness. To drape Syria’s wounds in the language of white supremacy—language that reeks of exclusion, militarism, and racial grievance—is not just an insult. It is a desecration," she wrote on the professional networking site LinkedIn.

However some social media users said that gestures like this were an effective way to gain favour with the Trump administration, given its erratic governing style, while others commented that they were at least happy that posters showing former dictator Bashar al-Assad were no longer gracing the Syrian capital.

The Trump administration has refused to lift sanctions on Syria or recognise the government of President Ahmed al-Sharaa, downgrading the status of Syrian diplomatic staff working at the UN’s headquarters in New York to reflect this.

It has reportedly demanded that Sharaa bans Palestinian groups operating in Syria before it lifts sanctions or engages with the Syrian government.

Congressman Cory Mills, a Trump ally, however said that he was "cautiously optimistic" after meeting Sharaa, adding that the Syrian president was willing to normalise ties with the US’s ally Israel "under the right conditions".

Syria’s economy has been devastated by over 14 years of war, with over 90 percent of people living in poverty.

The new Syrian authorities see the removal of US sanctions – originally imposed on the Assad regime – as essential to the country’s economic recovery, because they prevent other states besides the US from doing business with Syria.