Iran Defies Trump, Escalates Brutal Crackdown as Protest Death Toll Mounts

Despite a clear warning from President Donald Trump, the Iranian regime has doubled down on its violent repression of a growing anti-government uprising leaving at least 35 dead, including four children, and over 1,200 arrested in just nine days.

The death toll, confirmed by the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, includes 29 civilian protesters, many of whom were shot by regime forces, as well as two members of Iran’s brutal security forces.

Yet the Iranian regime isn’t backing down. It’s ramping up.

Trump, speaking aboard Air Force One, issued a stark warning last week “If they start killing people like they have in the past, I think they’re gonna get hit very hard by the United States.”

But Tehran is clearly testing his resolve and the cost in human lives is rising by the hour.

• Protests have now spread to more than 250 locations in 27 out of 31 provinces.

• Security forces have opened fire on demonstrators at Tehran’s Grand Bazaar, one of the most symbolic economic hubs in the country.

• Hospitals have been raided, and wounded protesters tear-gassed while seeking treatment, according to multiple human rights groups.

In Ilam, regime forces reportedly stormed a hospital, beating medical staff and using live ammunition on injured civilians an act that even the U.S. State Department labeled a “crime against humanity.”

A chilling message posted by the department’s Farsi-language account featured an image of President Trump alongside Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, warning simply “Don’t play with President Trump.”

While Iran’s president tries to dismiss the unrest as economically driven, even he admitted the inflationary crisis is out of control. The Iranian rial has lost 56% of its value in just six months, while food prices have skyrocketed 72% year over year. In response, the regime has offered a pathetic $7 grocery stipend a cruel joke to a population already facing starvation-level hardship.

But make no mistake this is no longer just about economics.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei made his position clear:

“Rioters must be put in their place. There is no point in talking with a rioter.”

That’s not leadership it’s tyranny. And it’s the kind of regime that has ruled Iran with an iron fist since 1979.

Now, for the first time in decades, the people of Iran are refusing to be silenced.

Armed with little more than cell phones, sticks, and sheer will, everyday Iranians students, shopkeepers, Kurds, women, and children are rising up against a regime armed with tanks and terror. And they’re doing it with full knowledge that speaking out could mean prison or death.

Yet they persist.

And now, they do so with the knowledge that Donald Trump is watching and ready to act.

Under the Biden administration, the Iranian regime grew bolder. Billions in frozen assets were released. Weak rhetoric replaced real deterrence. And the people of Iran were once again abandoned by Washington.

But Trump has made it clear: The United States stands with the Iranian people, not the terrorists who oppress them.

He’s backed Israel’s right to strike Iran’s missile infrastructure, warned of direct military retaliation, and greenlit operations against narco-tyrants like Maduro. Tehran would do well to remember what happens when President Trump draws a line.

The mullahs are gambling that they can wait this out. That the world will blink. That America will stay silent.

They’re wrong.

History is being written in the streets of Iran and thanks to brave protesters and fearless leadership, it may finally be the last chapter of the Islamic Republic.

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