As Iran protests swell, Trump's messages mixed on US intervention
President Trump attributed the scores of protester deaths to stampedes, even as videos show Iranian security forces are firing on protesters.
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Friday repeated his threat to intervene in Iran's protests, suggesting the United States was prepared to use military force.
"You better not start shooting, because we'll start shooting too," Trump told reporters. "I've made the statement very strongly that if they start killing people like they have in the past, we will get involved. We'll be hitting them very hard where it hurts. And that doesn't mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts."
After repeatedly warning that the United States would hit Iran “very hard” if its forces opened fire on protesters, Trump had backpedaled on Thursday when he told Fox News that the protesters’ deaths appeared to be the result of stampedes.
“You're losing a lot of people with the stampedes,” Trump said. “There's so many people protesting. But I have put Iran on notice that if they start shooting at them — these people are totally unarmed people ... we're gonna hit them very hard.”
