The images from the same night broadcast around the Middle East speak as loudly as the words. On the one hand: the young people of Iran, dancing in the streets to mark the re-election of a pragmatist, men and women together.
On the other: the president of the United States, swaying through an all-male "sword dance" under the stars with the absolute rulers of Saudi Arabia, where publicly calling for any form of political change risks prosecution.
President Donald Trump told admiring Arab absolute monarchs and military strongmen in a gilt chamber at the weekend that he wanted "peace, security and prosperity," and the United States was not there to tell them how to run their own countries.