President Trump is leveraging the ongoing protests in Iran to hint at potential U.S. military action against the Islamic regime, a move that has sparked discontent among leaders of the GOP’s “America First” faction. This group has grown increasingly vocal in its criticism of the Republican administration’s interventionist approach to foreign policy.

Trump’s remarks coincide with Israel’s push for American backing to counter what they claim are Iran’s renewed efforts to enhance its nuclear and missile capabilities.

The protests in Iran began earlier this week, initially triggered by a sharp decline in the national currency. However, they have since evolved into broader demonstrations against the government.

“If Iran targets and kills peaceful protesters, as they have done in the past, the United States will step in to aid them. We are fully prepared and ready to act,” Trump declared on Truth Social shortly before dawn on Monday.

While some Republicans have mirrored Trump’s aggressive stance on Iran, albeit without outright support for U.S. intervention, others have criticized the president for straying from the America First principles that were a cornerstone of his campaign.

“This threat isn’t about freedom of speech in Iran; it’s about the dollar, oil, and Israel,” Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), a prominent GOP thorn in Trump’s side, posted on the social platform X. 

Massie also criticized the threats of U.S. military intervention as a waste of American resources on another country’s internal affairs and said such strikes would require Congressional authorization. 

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), an outspoken Trump loyalist-turned-critic, said Trump’s threats to send U.S. troops to Iran “is everything we voted against in ‘24.”

Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser who remains influential in the MAGA movement, warned against the U.S. getting involved in “a bigger and longer mess,” comparing Trump’s message to previous threats from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 

“Let the Persian people take care of this. You can’t intrude on this thing,” he said on his War Room podcast. “The more you intrude, the more the Mullahs are going to dig in and say, ‘This is the great Satan that’s doing this,’ and you’re going to have a bigger and longer mess than you can have.” The Iranian regime refers to the U.S. as the “great Satan.”

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) was among the Republicans who backed Trump’s hard-line rhetoric, writing on X, “I support President Trump’s strong stance against the ayatollahs, who have tormented their own people just like they’ve killed Americans for 47 years.”

Trump’s former secretary of State, Mike Pompeo, also applauded the president’s threat. “Much-needed moral and strategic clarity from President Trump,” he wrote on X. “America stands with the Iranian people and supports their demands for freedom!”

Senior Iranian officials responded to Trump by threatening to strike at American troops and assets in the Middle East. 

“Trump must realize that U.S. intervention in this internal matter will lead to destabilizing the entire region and destroying American interests,” Ali Larijani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, posted on X. 

“The American people must know that Trump is the one who started this adventure, and they should pay attention to the safety of their soldiers.”

Trump’s threats follow his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday at the president’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., where both leaders issued public warnings to Iran against returning to production of its ballistic missile program and restarting nuclear activities. 

The protests had started a day before that meeting, but they were not mentioned by either leader in their public remarks. 

“I hope they’re not trying to build up again because, if they are, we’re going to have no choice but very quickly to eradicate that buildup,” Trump said alongside Netanyahu. 

U.S. strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities in June, as part of a 12-day war between Israel and Iran, succeeded in setting back Tehran’s nuclear weapons capabilities by at least two years, the Pentagon said at the time. 

But Netanyahu has ramped up warnings that Iran is seeking to rebuild. 

“They are going back to production [of ballistic missiles.] As far as the nuclear program, I think they are trying to do that,” Netanyahu said in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday. 

“I’m not sure they have decided to cross the line because I think they heed President Trump’s warnings, and because they just experienced something less than a year ago. They saw what it entails, and they have to choose.”

Critics of the Iranian regime welcomed U.S. intervention in defense of protesters, though they questioned the best approach. 

Several people have been reported killed amid the widening protests, which started in Tehran on Sunday but have spread to at least 17 of Iran’s 31 provinces, according to an analysis by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) published on Wednesday. 

The ISW said that Iranian security forces have used live fire to disperse protesters but have also deployed water cannons in freezing temperatures and despite an unprecedented water shortage crisis.

“The regime’s deployment of water as a tool to suppress protests amid Iran’s water crisis highlights the regime’s prioritization of its security and survival,” the ISW wrote in its analysis. 

Masih Alinejad, a prominent regime critic who was targeted by Tehran for assassination in the U.S., posted on social media that Trump’s statements echoed his decision to take out the top Iranian general Qasem Soleimani in 2020, during his first term. The administration said at the time it had intelligence Soleimani was planning an imminent attack on U.S. forces. 

“I supported targeted action against the terrorists openly, repeatedly. The response? Smears. ‘Warmonger.’ Let’s say it again: Removing terrorists saves lives,” she posted on X alongside a video purportedly showing protesters in Iran burning a statue of Soleimani. 

Reza Pahlavi, the exiled crown prince of Iran, repeated his offer to step in and lead Iran if the regime is overthrown. Pahlavi’s father was the last shah of Iran and overthrown in the 1979 revolution that established the Islamic Republic. 

“I have the plan for stable transition for Iran and the support of my people to get it done. With your leadership of the free world, we can leave a legacy of lasting peace,” Pahlavi posted on X in an open message to Trump. 

Michael Makovsky, President and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, gave the president credit for “saying something” in favor of the demonstrators but said Trump’s threats to strike Iran on behalf of protesters were not very believable. 

“Israelis would clearly like to see the regime collapse, so should the U.S., that should be our policy … but not how Trump wrote about it in his tweet, I don’t see how U.S. forces have a role,” he said. 

Makovsky said that Trump should enforce the sanctions on Iran’s oil exports, which reached a historic low at the end of Trump’s first term, 400,000 barrels per day exported in 2020.

But those numbers climbed during the Biden administration because of U.S. diplomatic outreach, and Trump in his second term has yet to meaningfully crack down. In November, Iran exported 2.2 million barrels per day, according to an analysis by the U.S.-based policy organization United Against Nuclear Iran. 

Other analysts also held back from endorsing Trump’s calls for military action, but said the U.S. could take steps to support the protesters and that strikes at the regime’s grip on power. 

“Such support does not mean U.S. boots on the ground,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, senior director of the Iran Program with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a Washington-based think tank, wrote in the New York Post. 

“It can be as simple as communications support like VPNs and Starlink internet access when the regime disconnects its citizens, or cyberattacks against the repression apparatus.”

Taleblu also suggested stronger sanctions against officials with the Ministry of Intelligence, using seized Iranian assets to support protesters, sanctions on human rights abusers and those involved in violent crackdowns on protests and executions.

“The Islamic Republic is hemorrhaging legitimacy while desperately trying to project strength through ballistic missiles and nuclear brinkmanship,” he wrote. 

Danny Citrinowicz, a nonresident fellow with the Atlantic Council’s Middle East Programs, warned of backlash if Trump’s threats prove empty or ineffective. 

“Assuming that the Iranian regime will fight for its life, then if the U.S. government does not come to the aid of the protesters, it will be a severe blow not only to the current protests but also to future ones,” Citrinowicz, who is also a fellow with the Israel-based Institute for National Security Studies, posted on X. 

“Trump may think that his statement is enough to fundamentally change the situation in Iran, but what if that doesn’t happen? Then what? The Iranian regime could use this statement as proof of the involvement of foreign elements in the protests, and could exploit this to increase its efforts to disperse the protests, including widespread use of force.”