Trump: The Enthusiasm of the People for the Overthrow of the Islamic Republic is Incredible; They Love Their Country, Which Has Gone Back 150 Years

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, emphasized in an interview with Sean Hannity of Fox News on Thursday, January 8, that the Islamic Republic may be on the verge of collapse. Mr. Hannity asked the President if he was following the protests occurring across Iran, to which the President responded, 'Yes, I am following it very closely.' The host then inquired about reports suggesting that Ali Khamenei now has an alternative plan to go to Russia. The President replied, 'Yes, at some point. He is looking to go somewhere.' Donald Trump also responded to the question of whether he believes the Islamic Republic is on the brink of collapse by saying, 'Well, it might be. I mean, what they have done in the past is that they have started shooting heavily at the people; and suddenly, people who have no weapons are standing there and being shot at with machine guns. Or they are taken to prison and then executed and killed. So their (Islamic Republic's) approach is very violent.' Mr. Trump added, 'I said if they do this, we will hit them very hard. Very hard. We are ready to do that. If they do this, we will hit them (the Islamic Republic).' In the continuation of this interview regarding the killing of protesters, he stated, 'So far, in total, this has happened to some extent, but in most cases, no. People have been killed. Some of them have really been trampled because the crowds have been so large. It has been really terrible. The crowds are just... very massive. The enthusiasm for overthrowing that regime is incredible.' He added, 'But people have been killed, but mostly due to death caused by... really being trampled. People start running in a specific direction. So we have to see what happens. We have to see what occurs.' The President of the United States, in another part of the interview, spoke about the anti-government protests in Iran, saying, 'So many people are protesting. No one has ever seen anything like what is happening now. But I have given a warning without ceremony [to the Islamic Republic] that if they start shooting at them—these people are completely unarmed—people who love their country and want change to happen. Look at their country; they have gone back 150 years. But I have told them that if they do any bad thing to these people, we will hit them very hard.' In another part of this interview, in response to the host's question, he expressed his feelings when making sensitive decisions such as the arrest of Nicolas Maduro and the elimination of Qasem Soleimani. Mr. Trump said, 'We took out Soleimani, which was a big deal; really a very big deal in the Middle East. He treated people very badly. He killed a lot of people. Almost 95 percent of the people you see walking without legs or without arms were due to roadside bombs; that (bombing) was his child. He enjoyed this work. We took him out.' He added, 'We also took out al-Baghdadi; the founder of ISIS. We did the 'Midnight Hammer,' which meant destroying the nuclear threat [of the Islamic Republic] of Iran. And this was a complete destruction, as it later became clear; with B-2 bombers and the best pilots in the world. They did this at night, without a moon, in complete darkness. And every bomb went down exactly from one air channel, deep into the heart of a granite mountain. It was amazing.'