On his way home from work this week in Tehran, Majid, a 34-year-old computer programmer, encountered traffic chaos because a power outage had disabled the stoplights. Earlier in the day, he and his co-workers had been trapped on the 16th floor of their all-glass office building without electricity or air-conditioning.
The headlines on Iranian state television that evening were dominated by the acute energy and economic crisis plaguing the country. The government had announced daily power cuts lasting several hours, changed school hours to start at 6 a.m. and warned more water outages would soon follow.
In contrast, satellite news channels were broadcasting wall-to-wall coverage of President Trump’s visit to the Middle East, said Majid, who asked that his last name not be published for fear of retribution. Arab countries, considered Iran’s rivals, were announcing multibillion dollar deals with Mr. Trump and showcasing economic development tied to their close alliances with the United States.
“I’m watching Trump announce tech deals with Saudi Arabia, our main rival, and thinking, ‘Where are we, and where are they?’” Majid said in a telephone interview from Tehran. “We are worried about riding the elevator at work, and they are getting artificial intelligence technology.”
Mr. Trump’s high-profile trip to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and United Arab Emirates, which wrapped up on Friday, resonated widely in Iran. Many Iranians said in phone interviews, social media posts and online town hall discussions that they had watched the tour of the region — the president’s first major international trip of his second term — unfold with a mix of envy, regret and anger at their government.
