{"id":403731,"date":"2026-01-12T22:42:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/403731\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T22:42:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T22:42:10","slug":"trump-unafraid-to-use-military-force-on-iran-white-house-says-donald-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/403731\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump \u2018unafraid to use military force on Iran\u2019, White House says | Donald Trump"},"content":{"rendered":"

Donald Trump is \u201cunafraid to use military force on Iran\u201d the White House said on Monday as the Iranian<\/a> regime still faces widespread unrest across the country.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Fox News, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that although diplomacy remained Trump\u2019s \u201cfirst option\u201d, he was \u201cunafraid to use the lethal force and might of the United States military if and when he deems that necessary\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cAirstrikes would be one of the many, many options that are on the table for the commander-in-chief,\u201d Leavitt continued, adding: \u201cHe\u2019s made it quite clear he certainly doesn\u2019t want to see people being killed in the streets of Tehran, and unfortunately, that\u2019s something we\u2019re seeing right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pointing to last year\u2019s US strikes on Iran\u2019s three major nuclear sites \u2013 which subsequent satellite imagery<\/a> suggested caused more limited damage than Trump had claimed<\/a> \u2013 Leavitt said of Trump\u2019s potential use of US military force: \u201cNobody knows that better than Iran.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leavitt also said that Iran\u2019s private and public messaging to the US had been \u201cquite different\u201d, adding: \u201cI think the president has an interest in exploring those messages.\u201d She did not elaborate on the nature of the messages.<\/p>\n

Following Leavitt\u2019s comments on Monday afternoon, Trump announced on Truth Social: \u201cEffective immediately, any country doing business with the Islamic Republic of Iran will pay a tariff of 25% on any and all business being done with the United States of America.\u201d<\/p>\n

In recent weeks, the Iranian regime has confronted its largest protest movement since 2009, which its leadership has sought to downplay, attributing the unrest to \u201cAmerican-Zionist terrorism<\/a>\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Monday, tens of thousands of pro-government demonstrators took to the streets of Tehran in a state-organized rally<\/a> intended to show support for the regime and counter the growing unrest.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, footage<\/a> circulating online in recent days showed dozens of bodies lined up outside Tehran\u2019s morgue, as the Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights confirmed that at least 648 people have been killed in the protests. Additionally, the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency has reported more than 10,600 arrests <\/a>by Iranian officials.<\/p>\n

The protests, which began over two weeks ago when traders in Tehran protested<\/a> over a sudden depreciation in the Iranian rial, have since spread nationwide and hardened into direct challenges to the clerical leadership.<\/p>\n

The Iranian regime has since responded with a harsh crackdown <\/a>including mass arrests, internet blackouts<\/a> and public warnings <\/a>that participation in the demonstrations could carry the death penalty.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Trump has repeatedly threatened Tehran in response to the regime\u2019s handling of the protests, saying<\/a> earlier this month that if Iranian officials attacked protesters, the US would \u201ccome to their rescue\u201d, adding that the US is \u201clocked and loaded and ready to go\u201d.<\/p>\n

Last Friday, Trump reiterated <\/a>his threats, saying: \u201cI tell the Iranian leaders, \u2018You\u2019d better not start shooting, because we\u2019ll start shooting too.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Donald Trump is \u201cunafraid to use military force on Iran\u201d the White House said on Monday as the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":["post-403731","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}