"If You Shoot, We Will Shoot Back"; Trump Threatens to Turn Iran into 'Hell'

US President Donald Trump reiterated his threat on Thursday of retribution against Iran should the Islamic Republic target protesters who have been taking to the streets in large numbers to demonstrate against the regime over the past two weeks.

His comments coincided with the biggest protests yet of nearly two weeks of rallies across Iran, as authorities cut internet access and the death toll from a crackdown mounted.

“I have let them know that if they start killing people, which they tend to do during their riots… we’re going to hit them very hard,” Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

When the radio host noted that dozens have indeed been killed in the protests, Trump countered that some of those deaths were caused by stampedes, and not necessarily caused by law enforcement.

“I’m not sure I can necessarily hold somebody responsible for that, but… they’ve been told very strongly — even more strongly than I’m speaking to you right now — that if they do that, they’re going to have to pay hell,” the president said.

Trump first issued a similar threat last Friday, when he warned that if Iran “violently kills peaceful protesters,” then the US would “come to their rescue.”

At least 45 protesters, including eight minors, have been killed since the rallies began on December 28, rights groups said Thursday.

Asked on Hewitt’s radio show to offer a message of support to the anti-regime protesters in Iran, Trump said: “You should feel strongly about freedom… You’re brave people. It’s a shame what’s happened to your country. Your country was a great country.”

The already riled-up protesters in Iran were further fueled on Thursday by a call from the country’s exiled crown prince for the public to take to the streets.

The response to his call, with thousands of people shouting from their homes and rallying outside, represented the first test of whether the Iranian public could be swayed by Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi, whose fatally ill father fled Iran just before the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Demonstrations have included cries in support of the Shah, something that could bring a death sentence in the past but now underlines the anger fueling the protests that began over Iran’s ailing economy.

Trump, pressed on whether he would meet with Pahlavi, indicated that he wouldn’t do so at this time.

“I’ve watched him, and he seems like a nice person, but I’m not sure that it would be appropriate at this point to do that,” Trump said. “I think that we should let everybody go out there and we see who emerges.”

Separately on Thursday, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent underscored Washington’s concerns about Tehran’s violent crackdown on anti-regime protests.

“The Iranian economy is on the ropes,” Bessent told the Economic Club of Minnesota, highlighting the high inflation and other challenges in the Islamic Republic, partly due to US sanctions.

“It’s a very precarious moment,” Bessent said, referring to Trump’s threat to retaliate if Tehran kills protesters. He does not want them to harm more of the protesters. This is a tense moment.”

He said it was clear that “what had been an affluent society that still maintained a high standard of living is really crumbling, and a lot of that is through the sanctions.”

The current protests have become the biggest in Iran since 2022, when the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody triggered nationwide demonstrations.

Iran has faced rounds of nationwide protests in recent years. As sanctions tightened and Iran struggled after its 12-day war with Israel in June 2025, its rial currency collapsed in December, reaching 1.4 million to $1. Protests began soon after, with demonstrators chanting against Iran’s theocracy.

Before Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution, the rial was broadly stable, trading at around 70 to $1. At the time of Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, $1 traded for 32,000 rials. Shops in markets across the country have shut down as part of the protests.