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President Donald Trump vowed Sunday evening that the Islamic Republic of Iran will “get hit very hard,” if Tehran repeats the killing of protesters, as it has during previous citizen-led revolts against the regime.
When asked about his initial comments on protecting Iranian demonstrators during a press gaggle on board Air Force One, Trump said that “We’re watching it very closely. 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.”
Anti-regime protests have engulfed Iran for the last nine days amid Trump’s second threat to intervene on the side of the demonstrators in Iran.
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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters while in flight on Air Force One, Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026, as returning to Joint Base Andrews, Md. (Alex Brandon/AP Photo)
According to the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists in Iran (HRAI), the intensity of the protests has reached at least 78 cities and 222 locations, with protesters demanding the end of the regime controlled by the 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
The group said the regime has killed at least 20 people, including three children, and arrested 990 people. Khamenei’s security forces have detained more than 40 children, HRAI noted.
Iran expert, Shukriya Bradost, who is CEO of Four Sides Security Solutions, told Fox News Digital that “Trump’s warning to the Iranian regime emboldened protesters because it came from a president who had already demonstrated a willingness to confront Tehran directly, most notably by ordering the killing of Qassem Soleimani. For Iranians who felt abandoned during the 2009 Green Movement under the Obama administration, and later disappointed by the Biden administration’s softer approach toward the regime, Trump’s words were seen as credible and empowering.”
A U.S. military drone strike killed the former Iranian general, Soleimani, in Iraq on Jan. 3, 2020.
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Protesters march in downtown Tehran, Iran, Monday, Dec. 29, 2025. (Fars News Agency via AP)
Bradost added, “Today, many Iranians want Trump to maintain that same clarity: to side openly with the Iranian people, not the regime, and to make clear that repression will not be ignored or normalized.
The Islamic Republic is no longer a functional system. The central question now is whether U.S. policy reinforces the Iranian people’s demand for genuine change, or unintentionally helps parts of a collapsing regime survive.”
Iranian protesters asked during the 2009 protests, “Obama: Are you with us or against us?” Obama sided with the Islamic Republic at the time. He said in 2022 that he regretted his alliance with Khamenei’s regime during the Green Movement.
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Trump’s pro-protest language has breathed additional fire and life into demonstrations, according to close followers of the upheaval blanketing Iran.
Mardo Soghom, a veteran Iran expert who has written extensively about the nation, told Fox News Digital that “There is little doubt that President Trump’s warning to Iran’s Islamic rulers will embolden Iranians, but the fact is that they began their recent protests before Trump made those comments. Most of the Iranians opposed to the regime, especially those inside the country protesting in the streets, are asking for Israeli or U.S. assistance in sort of disarming the regime and neutralizing its forces of repression.”
He added, “The current round of protests in Iran is different from previous rounds. People are not asking for reforms, but unanimously and categorically they are aiming for regime change. The protests are also more forceful. This time around, the people are less afraid of the notorious security forces and appear more determined.”
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Tehran’s options have been limited by Trump’s threats and a long-running economic crisis that deepened after Israel, joined by the U.S., launched strikes on the Islamic Republic in June in a 12-day war that pummelled several of Iran’s nuclear sites.
“These twin pressures have narrowed Tehran’s room for maneuver, leaving leaders caught between public anger on the streets and hardening demands and threats from Washington, with few viable options and high risks on every path,” one Iranian official told Reuters.
Protesters hold signs during a demonstration in Iran amid ongoing unrest, according to images released by the Iranian opposition group National Council of Resistance of Iran. (NCRI )
The Iranian-American campaigner to topple the Islamic Republic, Masih Alinejad, told Fox News that “Trump’s “strong message gave hope to the people of Iran.” She said after Trump’s first message of protection to the protesters, large numbers of Iranians poured into the streets. She stressed this is the first time in history that a U.S. President “is standing strongly with the people of Iran and not sending appeasement message to the killers.”
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Alinejad urged Trump to evict Iran’s representative at the U.N. and wants the White House to convince Elon Musk to provide Starlink service for internet communications. She called on President Trump to launch U.S. targeted military actions against those who ordered massacres in Iran and killed innocent people.