Tehran Regime Kills Thousands, Crossing Trump’s Red Line

“We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” President Donald Trump told the people of Iran, pledging “the United States of America will come to their rescue” if the clerical regime in Tehran guns down peaceful protesters. Now there is blood in the streets and Trump will have to decide how to make good on his promise.

 The regime’s security forces reportedly killed over 12,000 unarmed protestors in just two days, January 8 and 9, carrying out the most brutal crackdown in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Responding to the regime’s violence, Trump posted on January 13 that he has canceled meetings with regime officials and that “help is on its way.”

An Unprecedented Level of Violence

What began on December 28 as inflation-driven protests in downtown Tehran has become the most sustained and geographically expansive anti-regime protest movement in the Islamic Republic’s history, with at least 574 protest locations across 185 cities in all 31 Iranian provinces.

The horrific death count estimates follow numerous videos that depict armed personnel opening fire on protestors, including children, using shotguns and automatic weapons. Treating unarmed civilians as enemy forces, the regime deployed terrorist proxies to crush the protests, bringing in over 800 Iraqi Shiite fighters and Hezbollah operatives, primarily from U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organizations.

This ruthless suppression occurred amid a total internet shutdown, rather than the partial throttling tactics that limited communication during the 2022 Women, Life, Freedom movement and earlier protests. The regime paired this digital blackout with targeted electricity outages and landline disruptions.

The regime is also promising severe punishment to come for demonstrators. The head of the judiciary, Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei, declared no “leniency or tolerance” would be shown, promising expedited prosecutions while praising the brutality of the armed forces. The judiciary has also declared that all “rioters” would be tried for moharebeh(enmity against God), a capital offense which the regime often uses to execute political activists.

U.S. Confrontations With Regime Have Not Led Iranians To Rally to Its Defense

There is a misconception that if the United States and other Western powers seek to punish the clerical regime for its oppression, the Iranian people will rally in support of their oppressors. This fallacy ignores the protestors requests for Trump to intervene as well as the experience of the 12-Day War last June, when the people recognized U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on regime targets as attacks on a common enemy.

Those who ignore the clear preferences of the Iranian people also insisted that war might be imminent following the 2020 U.S. killing of Qassem Soleimani, the mastermind behind Iran’s terror network. No war ensued. During the current protests, Iranians have destroyed statues of Soleimani, rejecting the regime-imposed narrative that he was a martyr of American aggression.

After years of being murdered for demanding regime change from the street, Iranians have shown the world beyond a shadow of a doubt that theirs is an authentic, indigenous, and committed movement. 

It’s Time for Washington To Deliver on Assurances of Support

The unprecedented momentum in Iran needs and deserves support. An American response does not require boots on the ground, but it should squeeze the clerical regime on every front. The Trump administration has already promised a 25 percent tariff on countries doing business with Iran and has allegedly conducted cyber-attacks on at least one regime mouthpiece. These should only be first steps. Washington should also seize tankers exporting oil illicitly, thus hitting the regime in the pocketbook. It should also find way to provide Iranians with access to the internet and communications after nearly a week–long blackout.

European countries should also step up to the plate. They must move past simply issuing condemnations and terminate diplomatic relations with Iran and designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) as a terrorist organization for its direct role in crackdowns. The isolation of Tehran’s criminal regime should be unremitting.

Janatan Sayeh is a research analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), where he focuses on Iranian domestic affairs and the Islamic Republic’s regional malign influence. Bridget Toomey is a research analyst at FDD, where she focuses on Iranian proxies. For more analysis from Janatan, Bridget, and FDD, please subscribe HERE. Follow Janatan on X @JanatanSayeh and Bridget @BridgetKToomey. Follow FDD on X @FDDand @FDD_Iran. FDD is a Washington, DC-based, non-partisan research institute focused on national security and foreign policy.