Donald Trump said that he would be "better for the gay community" during the campaign, but his Justice Department is arguing against progress in LGBT rights made during the Obama Administration. Photo: Associated Press

Donald Trump said that he would be "better for the gay community" during the campaign, but his Justice Department is arguing against progress in LGBT rights made during the Obama Administration. Photo: Associated Press

In a surprise move, the Trump administration has announced it will lead a global campaign aimed at decriminalizing homosexuality worldwide. The move is seen as a thinly veiled attempt to shame Iran for human rights violations.

Trump’s presidency has been marked by repeated human rights violations and non-stop attacks on the LGBTQ community. At last count, Trump has deliberately taken actions that would harm the LGBTQ community at least 92 times.

Richard Grenell, Trump’s far-right ambassador to Germany, will lead the initiative. Grenell is an out gay Republican with a long history of making sexist and offensive comments on social media.

Grenell is being shunned by the leaders of his host country and the “vain” and “narcissistic” diplomat is increasingly isolated according to current and former diplomats and officials from both sides of the Atlantic.

Related: Sean Spicer confirms Trump’s pro-LGBTQ stance during convention speech was all a scam

“It is concerning that, in the 21st century, some 70 countries continue to have laws that criminalize LGBTI status or conduct,” a U.S. official involved in organizing the event told NBC News.

The actions follow reports that Iran executed a gay man by hanging. Trump has obsessively decried a treaty aimed at denuclearizing the country. He withdrew the United States from the agreement shortly after taking office, spurring worldwide criticism from our allies who are part of the deal.

Grenell has been an outspoken critic of Iran and an apologist for the administration’s nonstop attacks on LGBTQ people.

“This is not the first time the Iranian regime has put a gay man to death with the usual outrageous claims of prostitution, kidnapping, or even pedophilia. And it sadly won’t be the last time,” Grenell wrote in an op-ed for a German newspaper.

“Barbaric public executions are all too common in a country where consensual homosexual relationships are criminalized and punishable by flogging and death.”

Despite international outcry after journalist Jamal Khashoggi was brutally murdered at the direction of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Trump refused to take the country to task. The president has multiple business interests in the country.

Saudi Arabia is notorious for their human rights violations – including the criminalization and execution of LGBTQ people.