Donald Trump: We Must See Who Emerges from the Protests in Iran

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, on Thursday, January 8, 2025, during the twelfth day of nationwide protests and strikes in Iran, warned the Islamic Republic again about killing protesters in a video interview. The interviewer asked the President if he would meet with the Crown Prince Pahlavi, who is the heir to the constitutional monarchy, stating that he does not want to rule and would be a symbolic ruler like King Charles. Trump responded, "Well, I have been watching him, and he seems like a good guy." He added, "But I’m not sure that doing this right now as President [of the United States] would be appropriate. I think we should let everyone go out and see who [emerges from the protests]. I’m not sure that necessarily this [meeting] would be the right thing." The President also responded to the interviewer’s question about Iran, asking if the goal regarding Iran is the collapse of its 47-year-old terrible dictatorship, saying, "Well, I don’t want to say that, but I’ll tell you that they [the Islamic Republic] are not doing well, and you probably know that better than anyone else." Trump continued by saying that the Islamic Republic is "acting very weakly. And I have informed them that if they start killing people, which they usually do during their uprisings - they have a lot of uprisings - if they do this, we will deal with them very harshly." The interviewer asked Trump about the casualties in the protests and whether he has told the Islamic Republic what his limits are. The President responded, "Well, some have been killed due to crowd control issues and other things. We are monitoring it closely." He added, "The crowd [of protesters] is so large that a stampede has occurred. Three stampedes have happened, and people have been killed in them. And I’m not sure that I can necessarily hold anyone responsible for that. But they know, and very firmly, even more firmly than I’m speaking to you now, they have been told that if they do this, they will pay a heavy price." The interviewer asked Trump if he has a message for the people of Iran. The President replied, "The only thing I can say is that you must believe strongly in freedom. There is nothing like freedom. You are brave people. It’s a shame what has happened to your country. Your country was a magnificent country." He added, "I remember years ago, when I was a young real estate developer, my friends went to Iran and did great. They built buildings in Iran. By the way, they are still barely standing. But they are still standing. I see their pictures. Apartment buildings. And they did very well in Iran. They have passed away. They were very successful developers. They were great people. Most of them were New York developers. But they went to Iran and did relatively good work in Iran. And I remember they said the people [of Iran] are great. The whole region was great. It was an amazing market. And now look at it. See what has happened."