Trump: If Iran Hangs Protesters, the U.S. Will ‘Take Very Strong Action’
“Well, there’s a lot of help on the way, and in different forms, including economic help from our standpoint, and not going to help Iran very much.”
President Donald Trump spoke more about Iran during an interview with Tony Dokoupil on CBS Evening News, spanning from promises of help to the endgame.
Trump reiterated his promise to Iranians that help is on the way as they battle the brutal regime:
DOKOUPIL: Americans woke up this morning and they saw that you said, Help is on the way. What do you mean by that?
TRUMP: Well, there’s a lot of help on the way, and in different forms, including economic help from our standpoint, and not going to help Iran very much. And you know, we put Iran out of business with their nuclear capacity. And now, depending on what’s actually happening, nobody has been able to give us accurate numbers about how many people they’ve killed. Well, on that point, looks like it could be a pretty substantial number, and that’s going to be a lot of problems, a lot of problems
Trump first made the promise this morning, as Vijeta wrote.
(By the way, Vijeta has done a wonderful job covering Iran. Go read all of his articles!)
Dokoupil pushed on the number of protesters killed. Unfortunately, I doubt we will ever know the true number, but it shouldn’t shock anyone if it’s up in the tens of thousands.
But then, Dokoupil told Trump that CBS had heard that Iran plans to start hanging protesters tomorrow.
So, Dokoupil wanted to know if Iran had crossed Trump’s red line:
DOKOUPI: Well, now we’re hearing that they’re going to start hanging protesters tomorrow. So it comes back to the question, have they crossed your red line, or as the line moved?
TRUMP: I haven’t heard about the hanging. If they hang them, you’re going to see some things that I don’t know, what you’re where you come from, and what your thought process is, but you’ll perhaps be very happy.
DOKOUPI: What do you mean by that?
TRUMP: We will take very strong action. If they do such a thing, we will take very strong action.
Dokoupi pressed Trump for more information, but the president did not elaborate:
DOKOUPI: And this strong action you’re talking about, what’s the end game?
TRUMP: The end game is to win. I like winning.
DOKOUPI: How do you define that in Iran?
TRUMP: Well, let’s define it in Venezuela. Let’s define it with Al Baghdadi. He was wiped out. Let’s define it with Soleimani, and let’s define it in Iran, where we wiped out the Iran nuclear threat in a period of about 15 minutes. Once the B-2s got there, and that was a complete obliteration, as it turns out, which is what I said initially.
Then some questioned it, and they said, you know, “Trump was right.” So we’ve been right about everything. We don’t want to see what’s happening in Iran happen. And you know, if they want to have protests, that’s one thing. When they start killing thousands of people, and now you’re telling me about hanging, we’ll see how that works out for them. It’s not going to work out good.
You can watch the entire interview below. It’s only 13 minutes long! Trump touches on other subjects, including the economy, Jerome Powell, jobs, and ICE.
I have to say…Dokoupi is a huge upgrade. Maybe Bari Weiss isn’t all talk at CBS News.
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Comments
trump is truly a man of peace and dignity as he wants to preserve human lives and freedoms while the forces of the left continue to do the exact opposite
I think he should do more.
He cares if they hang but not if they get shot by 10s of thousands
And people wonder why Israel must be passive-aggressive in action. Khamenei should split before it’s too late. So much suffering by these true religious freaks. In a just world, they are the ones that should be in the dock of the ICC.
I think Trump wants to be The Good Guy here – but still realizes his ability to fix everything only goes so far.
During WW II and the Holocaust we COULD have targeted the Death Trains infrastructure – although we didn’t. Our bad – even if just admitting that’s not sufficient to wipe out whatever guilt was ours for that inaction.
We certainly didn’t have the ability / “boots on the ground” to stop the Nazi bastards from rounding up all their untermench – just the ability to hinder the efficiency of their unholy “solution”.
If we CAN use TARGETED strikes to kill those ordering or performing mass executions of Iranian civilians – and we don’t – we are arguably complicit. Just as complicit as all the other nations not holding 3rd world countries to civilized standards because… racism.
Someone or something is definitely holding him back. I don’t think this is good.
I hope he’s not holding on to hope that Russia will end things in Ukraine if he holds back here and tries to use that as leverage.
Trump has made the threat and if he backs down, no world leader will ever take him seriously,..he boxed himself into a corner
I think that we should target Irans military. Also, if the people don’t get water soon there will be a far worse die off.
Help shouldn’t be free, make them pay for it.
Video from Laura Loomer inside Iran
Not for the weak of heart
Laura Loomer’s 3hr old post with what I assume is “the video of all the dead protesters.”
“Age Protected”, but xcancel bypasses that.
WARNING: OBVIOUSLY EXTREMELY GRAPHIC!
https://xcancel.com/LauraLoomer/status/2011266625626903039
It always strikes me as odd that journalists seem to expect government officials to just explain in detail what military plans are afoot, as if that doesn’t have opsec implications.
Maybe they’re just doing their jobs by pressing for information, but it just strikes me as silly to try to get operational details about exactly what is planned, and then act disappointed when the official they’re interviewing won’t compromise the integrity of the mission by divulging exact plans.
Duh.
Brings to mind a shipmate of mine back in my seafaring days. If someone asked him “what are your plans for the weekend” or something like that, he’d always reply “didn’t I already tell you?”. After they naturally responded “no” he’d say “I guess it’s none of your damn business then is it?”
He was (usually) joking, but it reminds me of this type of situation: If Trump wanted the media to know his exact plans, they wouldn’t need to ask.
We cannot be seen as aiding the revolution to affect the mullahs leaving Iran and seeking refuge in another country. President Trump is trying to get them to walk away. Whoever is giving him advice does not understand the Ayatollah or his mullahs. Just like Hitler they know if they walk they will be hunted down and executed. Or brought back to Iran to stand trial and hang. The best case scenario is to let the Mossad tells us where they are hiding and take them out with a MOAB and then don’t say a word about it to the press. Let the speculation begin about how they were killed. Everyone will know it’s us, but don’t repeat don’t ever admit to it.
Trump has few options for immediate relief for the protesters. Unless something clear and immediately decisive can be done, he should quit talking to media.
Trump needs to act, since he opened his yap. I hope he’s got some brilliant 4D chess move going, because, otherwise, it sure makes him look like an empty suit.
I think the best would be to simply arm the revolutionaries. Even the odds a bit. And offer to take the Ayatollah off their hands, if they like. (I think they would say “No, thanks” to that.) And offer engineering help to get more desalination running and stabilize Tehran, after the mullahs are gone.