President Trump on Thursday issued a new threat against Iran amid continued protests in the country, saying he will hit the country “very hard” if Iranian authorities kill protesters.
“I have let them know that if they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots… we’re going to hit them very hard,” Trump told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.
Hewitt claimed dozens of people had already been killed, which is based on reports from Western-backed NGOs, and Trump responded by saying some were killed by stampedes and other incidents not caused by the action of law enforcement.
“I’m not sure I can necessarily hold somebody responsible for that, but… they’ve been told very strongly — even more strongly than I’m speaking to you right now — that if they do that, they’re going to have to pay hell,” he said.
Iran has said that its security forces have conducted operations against “armed terror cells” and arrested “foreign-linked” operatives amid the protests. An Farsi-language X account affiliated with the Israeli Mossad has previously suggested it had agents on the ground among the protesters in Iran, a claim echoed by Mike Pompeo, who served as the CIA director and then secretary of state during the first Trump administration.
“Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets. Also to every Mossad agent walking beside them,” Pompeo wrote on X on January 2.
Trump has now repeatedly threatened to launch another war against Iran over the protests, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who recently spent time with the president, has claimed that Trump is ready to kill Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“To the people of Iran: We stand with you tonight,” Graham said in an appearance on Fox News on Tuesday night. “And to the Ayatollah: You need to understand, if you keep killing your people who are demanding a better life, Donald J. Trump is gonna kill you.”
Amid the threats from Trump over protests inside Iran, Iranian media outlets have covered the incident in Minneapolis on Wednesday that led to an ICE agent shooting and killing a 37-year-old woman.
