Iran warns Trump not to cross ‘red line’ after US president says military ‘locked and loaded’ to help protesters

Iran threatened American interests across the Middle East on Friday after Donald Trump warned that the US army is “locked and loaded” if Tehran kills protesters.

As the country is rocked by the most significant demonstrations since 2022, Trump said the US military would “come to the rescue” of Iranian protesters if they are “violently killed”.

At least seven people have been killed so far in violence surrounding the demonstrations, sparked in part by the collapse of Iran's currency. Protestors have been heard calling for the overthrow of supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

“If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump warned. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.

“Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J.TRUMP” he added. It was not clear from his comments what assistance the US would offer the protesters.

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Ali Shamkhani, an adviser to the Ayatollah, said Iran’s national security was a “red line, not material for adventurist tweets”.

“Any intervening hand nearing Iran security on pretexts will be cut off with a regret-inducing response,” he said in a post on X.

Shortly after, Ali Larijani, a former parliament speaker who serves as the secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, claimed without evidence that Israel and the US were stoking the demonstrations.

“Trump should know that intervention by the US in the domestic problem corresponds (to) chaos in the entire region and the destruction of the US interests," he wrote on X, which the Iranian government blocks. “The people of the US should know that Trump began the adventurism. They should take care of their own soldiers.”

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The protests in Iran have primarily centred on the country’s economic hardships, many of which have persisted since the U.S. first imposed tariffs on the country’s government in 2018.

The last widespread protests in Iran took place in 2022 following the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini, a young woman accused by morality police of not wearing her veil properly. Her death triggered protests that spread across the country and rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s four-decade-old Islamic theocracy.

Social media video obtained by the BBC showed cars being set ablaze and roads blocked in the capital Tehran, as well as Azna and Kouhdasht.

However, one of Trump’s former loyalists has slammed the president for wanting to get involved in unrest overseas.

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Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene ended 2025 with a furious post on X, in which she claimed that Americans were planning a “tax revolt” over Trump’s involvement in “foreign wars.”

“Trump spent the weekend with Zelensky and Netanyahu, Pentagon fails audit again, meanwhile Americans are planning a tax revolt because they don’t know what else to do to get their elected officials to stop their money from being given to thieves, foreigners, and foreign wars,” she wrote.

Greene previously criticized Trump for authorizing a strike on three nuclear facilities in Iran in June 2025.

Nicknamed Operation Midnight Hammer, the strike saw fourteen “bunker buster” bombs being unloaded on the facilities in a bid to prevent Iran from allegedly developing a nuclear weapon.

The bombing was the only direct US involvement in Israel’s war with Iran, which also ended in June.

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As tensions soar with Iran just days into 2026, Retired Lieutenant Colonel Tony Shaffer warned that the US needs to exercise extreme caution if further strikes go ahead.

“Well, it depends on what the target is,” he told The Chris Salcedo Show on Thursday. “There are a number of things that are going on right now that we could be helpful with.

“One of those things, obviously, is the unrest in the street,” he added. “We want to make it very clear, we’re against the mullahs and theocracy, not the people of Iran.”