Donald Trump has promised ‘very strong action’ in Iran if they go ahead with hanging protesters amid reports that a 26-year-old will be executed tomorrow.
The president previously warned the Islamic regime that he would take military action if they harmed protesters. Since then, at least 2,000 protesters have been killed.
Trump was asked about the substantial death toll and reports that Iran has ordered a young protester’s hanging on Wednesday – and whether this would constitute the crossing of a ‘red line.’
‘I haven’t heard about their hangings, if there’re any,’ Trump told CBS as he toured a Ford factory in Detroit on Tuesday. ‘We will take very strong action if they do such a thing.’
CBS’ Tony Dokoupil asked, ‘And this strong action – are we talking about, what’s the end game?
Trump replied, ‘If they wanna have protests, that’s one thing. When they start killing thousands of people – now you’re telling me about hanging – we’ll see how that works out for them. It’s not gonna work out good.’
The president earlier issued a message to Iranians on his Truth Social platform, telling them that ‘help is on its way’ as he called on protesters to ‘take over’ the country. He said he had canceled all talks with the Iranian side.
Trump was interviewed by CBS News’ Tony Dokoupil at a Ford plant in Detroit, MIchigan, on Tuesday
Trump and CBS News’ Tony Dokoupil at a Ford plant in Detroit
Trump has repeatedly threatened Tehran with military action if his administration found the Islamic Republic was using deadly force against antigovernment protesters.
Trump on Sunday told reporters he believed Iran is ‘starting to cross’ that line and has left him and his national security team weighing ‘very strong options’.
Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and key White House National Security Council officials began meeting Friday to develop options for Trump, ranging from a diplomatic approach to military strikes.
Iran, through the country´s parliamentary speaker, has warned that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if Washington uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 600 protests have taken place across all of Iran´s 31 provinces, the Human Rights Activists News Agency reported Tuesday. The activist group said 1,850 of the dead were protesters and 135 were government-affiliated. It said more than 16,700 people had been detained.
Understanding the scale of the protests has been difficult. Iranian state media has provided little information about the demonstrations. Online videos offer only brief, shaky glimpses of people in the streets or the sound of gunfire.
Trump’s push on the Iranian government to end the crackdown comes as he is dealing with a series of other foreign policy emergencies around the globe.
It´s been just over a week since the U.S. military launched a successful raid to arrest Venezuela´s Nicolás Maduro and remove him from power. The U.S. continues to mass an unusually large number of troops in the Caribbean Sea.
Trump is also focused on trying to get Israel and Hamas onto the second phase of a peace deal in Gaza and broker an agreement between Russia and Ukraine to end the nearly four-year war in Eastern Europe.
But advocates urging Trump to take strong action against Iran say this moment offers an opportunity to further diminish the theocratic government that´s ruled the country since the Islamic revolution in 1979.
The demonstrations are the biggest Iran has seen in years – protests spurred by the collapse of Iranian currency that have morphed into a larger test of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei´s repressive rule.