Trump Is On A Roll

As we discussed yesterday how the Venezuela military operation went down over the weekend and the shockwaves that resulted, President Donald Trump is on record as warning Iran’s leadership they will get a rude awakening if they crackdown on the protest happening all over their country as we read in a report from The Epoch Times:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Jan. 4 warned Iran that the United States is prepared to respond forcefully if Iranian security forces escalate lethal violence against protesters, as rights groups reported that at least 16 people had been killed during a week of unrest sparked by soaring inflation and a collapsing currency.

Trump, in response to the ongoing situation in Iran issued a strong warning:

“We’re watching it very closely,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One when asked about the protests and earlier remarks in which he said Washington was “locked and loaded” and ready to come to the rescue if Iran kills peaceful protesters.

“If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re going to get hit very hard by the United States,” Trump said, reiterating his earlier warning to Tehran that Washington would not stand by if Iranian authorities resort to deadly force against demonstrators.

The protestors were originally complaining about the financial conditions of Iran, but those complaints expanded:

Rights monitors say demonstrations have spread across multiple provinces, with clashes between protesters and security forces intensifying in recent days. What started as anger over economic hardship, sanctions, and the collapse of the Iranian rial has hardened into mass demonstrations against the ruling system itself, with calls for the overthrow of the Islamic Republic met by an increasingly lethal security response.

Some sources say that the deaths and arrests have already happened:

Norway-based Kurdish rights group Hengaw said that at least 17 people have been killed since the protests began in late December. HRANA, a network of Iranian rights activists, reported at least 16 deaths and 582 arrests. Iranian state media have acknowledged fatalities and arrests but have reported different figures.

Unlike past presidents, Trump is indicating he will support the protestors with apparently military strikes at least his comments appear that way:

Trump’s latest warning followed a social media post on Jan. 2 in which he vowed to come to the aid of protesters if the Iranian government “violently kills peaceful protesters,” adding that the United States was “locked and loaded and ready to go,” without specifying what action Washington might take.

Iran Should Take Heed

The arrest of Maduro is also a signal to Iran that they could be next. But they don’t appear to be getting the message:

His warnings to Iran have taken on new weight after U.S. troops captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, a longtime ally of Tehran, on Jan. 3. The Iranian foreign ministry condemned the U.S. action in a Jan. 3 post on X, calling it a “blatant violation of the country’s national sovereignty and territorial integrity.” The ministry called on the U.N. Security Council to “immediately halt” what it called “the United States’ unlawful aggression against Venezuela.”

They say that supporting the protestors is actually causing the violence:

A foreign ministry spokesperson on Jan. 5 condemned the voicing of support from the United States for protesters in Iran, describing it as an “incitement to violence.”

Iran’s leader was also defiant:

Responding to Trump’s remarks that the United States is ready to come to the rescue of protesters if the killing ramps up, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tehran “will not yield to the enemy.”

“We will speak with the protesters, but talking to rioters is useless,” Khamenei said in remarks aired by Iranian state television on Jan. 3. “Rioters should be put in their place.”

And the evidence is there for doing just that:

Police chief Ahmad-Reza Radan said protest leaders were being targeted for arrest. He said that a “big number of leaders on the virtual space” had been detained. Police said about 40 people were arrested in Tehran over what they described as fake online posts aimed at fueling unrest.

Intense clashes have been reported in western Iran, although protests have also erupted in Tehran and in the southern Baluchistan province. In Qom, a religious center, local officials said two people were killed during unrest late on Jan. 3, including one man who died when an explosive device he had made detonated prematurely.

Iran’s economy is very bad, mostly due to their own bad choices which includes their weapons programs:

Economic grievances lie at the heart of the unrest. Iran has faced inflation above 36 percent since March, and the rial has lost about half of its value against the U.S. dollar over the past year, pushing up prices for basic goods. International sanctions tied to Iran’s nuclear program have compounded the pressure, while power and water shortages have added to public anger.

Iran has long maintained that its nuclear activities are strictly civilian, but Western governments say recent actions and rhetoric have heightened concerns about proliferation. Before U.S. strikes in June targeting Iran’s nuclear program, Tehran had been enriching uranium to near weapons-grade levels—an unprecedented step for a country without a declared nuclear weapons program. Iranian officials recently said enrichment had ceased at all sites, a move they portrayed as a signal of openness to renewed talks aimed at easing sanctions, although no meaningful negotiations have taken place since the June strikes.

And then there are the promises of reforms which some don’t think are possible:

Beyond economic pressure, analysts say the unrest reflects widening public frustration with stalled reforms and a growing belief that Iran’s political system is unwilling or unable to deliver meaningful change.

“Even if [Iranian] President [Masoud] Pezeshkian wanted to pursue real reforms, the system itself would not permit them,” political commentator Saeed Bashirtash said in an interview with the Persian edition of The Epoch Times.

Add it all up and Iran could be ripe for those strikes Trump alluded to. When Trump says He’s locked and loaded he isn’t bluffing at all.