President Donald Trump on Tuesday called for a stop to the “senseless killing of protesters” and assured demonstrators that “help is on its way.”
“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! Save the names of the killers and abusers,” Trump said in a Truth Social post. “They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS.”
Trump’s post followed a CBS News report that more than 12,000 people have been killed in Iran as activists stage anti-government protests across the country. More than 16,000 people have reportedly been arrested during the demonstrations, which erupted over two weeks ago in response to Iran’s struggling economy.
While in Detroit on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that “nobody has been able to give me an accurate number” of the death toll in Iran.
“Everything is a lot. One is a lot,” Trump said. “But I have heard numbers much lower and I’ve heard numbers much higher. We’re probably going to find out over the next 24 hours. I think it’s a lot. It’s too many, whatever it is.”
Trump’s show of support for Iranian demonstrators was a stark contrast to remarks he made earlier Tuesday about the nationwide protests that sprouted after an ICE agent fatally shot a 37-year-old woman in Minneapolis last week.
“Minnesota Democrats love the unrest that anarchists and professional agitators are causing because it gets the spotlight off of the 19 Billion Dollars that was stolen by really bad and deranged people,” Trump wrote. “FEAR NOT, GREAT PEOPLE OF MINNESOTA, THE DAY OF RECKONING & RETRIBUTION IS COMING!”
In the days since the Jan. 7 shooting, Trump and his top officials have defended the ICE agent who killed Renee Good, saying he acted in self-defense in an “inhospitable environment.”
“At a very minimum, that woman was very, very disrespectful to law enforcement,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday.
The president has also claimed that Good was a “professional agitator” who was “probably paid.” He has not offered any evidence to support those allegations.
