‘Locked and Loaded!’ Trump Warns Iran He Will Intervene If Regime ‘Kills Peaceful Protesters’

(Screengrab via X)

President Donald Trump cautioned that the United States was ready to intervene in Iran if the regime “violently kills peaceful protestors” in a bid to suppress nationwide demonstrations sparked by economic collapse.

The threat came overnight Friday as protests erupted in Iran days earlier over soaring inflation, currency collapse, and plunging living standards, first in Tehran’s commercial districts before spreading to colleges and regional cities.

Iranian media reports several deaths already and dozens of arrests as unrest has turned violent in places, with security forces deploying tear gas and mass detentions.

In a post on Truth Social early Friday, Trump threatened that the U.S. was “locked and loaded and ready to go”:

If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go.

(Screengrab via TruthSocial)

Soon after, Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker and now secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, took to X to claim without evidence that Israel and the U.S. were behind the unrest.

“Trump should know that U.S. interference in this internal matter would mean destabilizing the entire region and destroying America’s interests,” Larijani wrote. “The people of the U.S. should know that Trump began the adventurism. They should take care of their own soldiers.”

Iran’s leadership has long responded to large-scale dissent with force, a reality that looms over the current crisis. Trump’s intervention, however, adds an unpredictable international dimension just months after Washington briefly joined Israel in strikes on Iranian nuclear sites during a 12-day war in June.

Iran feared Israel was pursuing regime change, and Trump has since warned the US could strike again if Iran attempts to rebuild its nuclear program, following talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Trump did not detail what his promised intervention would mean in practice, but the rhetoric alone marks a significant escalation.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who came to power promising economic reform and relief for ordinary citizens, has sought to calm tensions by appointing a new central bank governor and meeting business leaders amid rising prices and collapsing wages.

On Thursday night, Pezeshkian said “people’s livelihoods are the government’s red line,” calling economic stability a “non-negotiable” duty, according to the Financial Times.

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