President Trump said Wednesday he knows it is not easy for the Iranian people to rise against their hardline leaders, but he thinks the Islamic regime will get “weaker by the day” and become vulnerable to overthrow.
Mr. Trump explained his thinking on internal pressure on Tehran’s leaders after posing a question on social media earlier in the day: “When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?”
The president said Iranians are afraid they will be killed, citing recent history of protests before the U.S.-Iran war, but said the tide could turn.
“The regime is getting weaker and weaker by the day, and at some point they’re not going to be able to shoot so easily because I think the people aren’t going to take it,” he said in the Oval Office.
Mr. Trump sympathized with the Iranian people during economy-related protests before the war. He suggested the U.S. war might help the Iranian people topple the regime, though later he noted the harsh reality that protesters are fearful and it is difficult to buck the Tehran government.
Mr. Trump launched airstrikes against Iran on Feb. 28 to prevent it from getting a nuclear weapon. Iran retaliated by shutting down the Strait of Hormuz, leading to cycles of diplomacy and violence.
The U.S. and Iran traded strikes in recent days after a monthlong lull in the fighting.
Mr. Trump, however, has tried to emphasize economic pressure as the best way to weaken the Iranian regime. He is blockading Iranian ports and shipping, and says the effort is getting plenty of non-Iranian oil through the Strait of Hormuz.
“I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement,” he posted Wednesday on social media. “I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing. They are just playing out the inevitable.”
Speaking in the Oval Office, Mr. Trump said the war is in firm control, and the U.S. has sights on everything the Iranian military tries to do.
“They can’t go to the bathroom without us seeing it,” he said.
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