President Trump threatens to intervene in Iranian protests
President Donald Trump has threatened to intervene in Iran, where deadly civil unrest is brewing over the cost of living.
Anti-government protests in Iran appeared to accelerate on January 9, sparked by anger over the country’s collapsing currency and widespread despair and disillusionment with Iran’s clerics.
The heightened unrest comes after President Donald Trump warned Iranian authorities not to kill peaceful protesters and said the United States was “coming to their aid.”
Internet watchdog NetBlocks said data showed Iranian authorities imposed a nationwide internet shutdown and other forms of strict digital censorship during the unrest. This makes it difficult to draw final conclusions about the scale and intensity of the protests and the government’s response.
However, some videos and images were leaked and published on social media by opposition groups and human rights watchdogs. In some parts, protesters can be heard calling for the overthrow of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei and the return of the exiled son of Iran’s last king, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahlavi. The last Shah of Iran, as he is known, was overthrown by Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979. His son and successor, Reza Pahlavi, also lives in Virginia.
Iran’s religious rulers have long struggled to bridge the gap between their theocratic priorities and the expectations of a young society seeking more social, economic and political freedoms.
Some videos and images showed protesters encountering tear gas during violent street clashes. The US-based Human Rights Defenders News Agency reported that at least 34 protesters and four security personnel have been killed and 2,200 people arrested in the past 12 days. The Norway-based monitoring group Iran Human Rights said at least 45 protesters, including eight children, had been killed by Iranian security forces.
But the demonstrations, which began in Tehran last month and spread to all 31 Iranian provinces, have not yet reached the scale of the unrest sparked by Mahsa Amini’s death, starting in 2022 and extending into 2023, according to monitoring groups. The 22-year-old man was detained on suspicion of violating Islamic dress codes and died in police custody. Members of Iran’s Guidance Patrol, the so-called morality police, claimed that Amini was wearing the hijab incorrectly when she was arrested.
Iran does not maintain diplomatic relations with the United States. A representative from Iran’s mission to the United Nations in New York did not respond to a request for comment on the ongoing protests that began in Tehran with shopkeepers in the city’s Grand Bazaar angered by the plummeting value of the currency, the rial. Since then, they have evolved to include primarily young men rather than the women and girls who played a key role in Amini’s protests.
In a post on X, Pahlavi said “millions of Iranians” are demanding “freedom.” He also expressed gratitude to President Trump, who recently warned Iranian leaders that the United States would intervene if peaceful protesters were killed. Iranian state media downplayed the scale of the protests and published videos of deserted streets. The Pentagon bombed Iranian nuclear facilities in August 2025 as part of the Israel-Iran war that lasted 12 days.
