US President Donald Trump said it was time for new leaders to take control in Iran after tens of thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in the country, presenting the Islamic republic with one of the most serious threats to its legitimacy since the 1979 revolution.
“It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran,” Trump told Politico in remarks published on January 17.
Trump also directly assailed Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has represented the real power in the country for the past 37 years and had earlier attacked the US president on social media.
“What he [Khamenei] is guilty of, as the leader of a country, is the complete destruction of the country and the use of violence at levels never seen before,” Trump said.
“In order to keep the country functioning — even though that function is a very low level — the leadership should focus on running his country properly, like I do with the United States, and not killing people by the thousands in order to keep control.”
“Leadership is about respect, not fear and death,” Trump added.
Action Began With Economic Protest
The latest challenge to the theocratic government erupted on December 28, 2025, with demonstrators taking the streets over Iran’s struggling economy, before snowballing into antiestablishment protests.
The Norway-based Iran Human Rights group has verified at least 3,428 protester deaths by security forces, while the US-based HRANA puts the verified death toll at 2,885.
Rights groups warn that the actual toll is likely higher due to an internet blackout imposed since January 8 that has severely hampered verification efforts.
Trump has taken the lead among Western leaders in assailing Iran’s hard-line rulers over the brutal crackdown on protesters throughout the country. The EU, UN, and rights groups have also condemned the Iranian government.
Trump initially warned that the United States was “locked and loaded” to take action if Iranian security forces killed protesters. He later threatened to take “very strong action” if Iran hanged protesters after word spread of potential executions of detained individuals.
On January 17, Khamenei repeated his claim that the United States had instigated the protests in Iran and blamed the casualties on Trump.
“We find the US president guilty due to the casualties, damages, and slander he inflicted upon the Iranian nation,” he said in an annual speech marking a religious occasion.
Scheduled Executions Of Detained Protesters
On January 16, Trump publicly thanked Iran’s leadership on Truth Social, writing: “I greatly respect the fact that all scheduled hangings, which were to take place yesterday (over 800 of them), have been cancelled by the leadership of Iran. Thank you!”
“You had yesterday scheduled over 800 hangings. They didn’t hang anyone. They canceled the hangings. That had a big impact,” Trump said in separate remarks.
Iran has not publicly confirmed plans to execute 800 protesters, nor has it announced the cancellation of any such scheduled executions.
Iran’s hard-liners have controlled all levers of powers in the Islamic republic — led by the supreme ruler and the powerful Guardians Council — since the 1979 overthrow of the US-allied Shah.
Experts say there is growing chasm between the ruling clerics and Iran’s young population, many of whom have long demanded greater social and political freedoms in the Middle East nation of some 89 million.
After more than two weeks, nightly street protests appeared to have abated somewhat on January 17, but reports are impossible to verify after Iranian authorities plunged the country into what witnesses describe as a near-total digital blackout in response to the protests.
Reza Pahlavi, son of the late shah of Iran, on January 16 said he was confident the Islamic republic and its regime will collapse in the face of mass protests.
“The Islamic republic will fall — not if, but when,” he told a news conference in Washington. “I will return to Iran.”
The former crown prince has emerged as a leading opposition figure during the unrest, although the Iranian opposition as a whole remains fragmented and unorganized.
Backing From Abroad
The protesters have received widespread support on the streets and at events in a number of US and European cities and elsewhere.
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi made an urgent appeal at the European Film Awards in Berlin for the world to “react” to the government crackdown.
“If the world does not react to this blatant violence today, not only Iran, but the entire world, is at risk,” he said during the opening ceremony.
“Violence when left unanswered, becomes normalized. And when it becomes normalized, it’s spread. It becomes contagious.”
Panahi, who has previously faced imprisonment in Iran, has vowed to return to the country to continue his calls for freedom in the country.
