Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the US and Israel’s unlikely choice to lead Iran

Populist former president’s falling-out with the Tehran regime allegedly drew him into a takeover plot

• US and Israel hoped to install Ahmadinejad as Iran’s leader

For all their outward differences, there always seemed to be things that linked Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Donald Trump.

A visit to the then Iranian president’s rather humble Tehran neighbourhood nearly 20 years ago highlighted cost of living problems that prefigured those facing Trump now.