President Trump threatened to take \u201cvery strong action\u201d against the Iranian regime Tuesday if anti-government protesters are executed.<\/b>
\nPresident Trump on Tuesday threatened to take \u201cvery strong action\u201d against the Iranian regime if anti-government protesters are executed.
\u201cI haven\u2019t heard about the hanging. If they hang \u2019em, you\u2019re gonna see some things that \u2013 I don\u2019t know what you\u2019re \u2013 where you come from and what your thought process is, but you\u2019ll perhaps be very happy,\u201d Trump told \u201cCBS Evening News\u201d anchor Tony Dokoupil during an interview in Detroit.
When Dokoupil asked the president to clarify what he meant, Trump responded: \u201cIf they do such a thing, we will take very strong action.\u201d
More than 2,000 Iranians have been killed amid the regime\u2019s brutal crackdown on protesters, according to the US-based Human Rights Activists News Agency.
Other sources paint a far more grim picture, with death toll estimates ranging between 12,000 to 20,000 people, CBS News reported.
Trump said the \u201cendgame\u201d of taking strong action against Tehran would be \u201cto win,\u201d and implied that it would involve a military operation when asked how he would define victory in Iran.
\u201cWell, let\u2019s define it in Venezuela. Let\u2019s define it with al Baghdadi. He was wiped out. Let\u2019s define it with Soleimani, and let\u2019s define it in Iran, where [the US military] wiped out the Iran nuclear threat in a period of about 15 minutes once the B-2s got there,\u201d the president explained.
\u201cWe don\u2019t want to see what\u2019s happening in Iran happen,\u201d Trump continued. \u201cAnd, you know, if they want to have protests, that\u2019s one thing. When they start killing thousands of people \u2013 and now you\u2019re telling me about hanging \u2013 we\u2019ll see how that works out for them.
\u201cIt\u2019s not going to work out good.\u201d
Dokoupil, who took over anchoring duties on \u201cCBS Evening News\u201d earlier this month, pressed Trump about concerns from voters that his attention has been \u201cdrifting\u201d away from domestic issues and toward problems in other countries.
\u201cMy big focus is here,\u201d Trump said, after arguing that the US economy is soaring. \u201cBut you can\u2019t be forgetting about bad threats. You can\u2019t be forgetting about an Iran with a nuclear weapon. You can\u2019t forget that there\u2019s tremendous wealth in the Middle East, and a lot of that wealth is coming over here to build plants.\u201d
The president added, \u201cMy focus is very much on this country, but you can\u2019t lose sight of the fact that we need peace all over the world.\u201d
Later, Trump doubled-down on comments he made earlier this month indicating that his actions overseas will only be limited by his own morality.
\u201cI\u2019m a moral person. I don\u2019t like seeing death. I don\u2019t like seeing our people hurt. I don\u2019t like seeing the other side hurt either,\u201d he said.
\u201cYou know, when we went into Venezuela we lost nobody, but a lot of people on the other side were killed,\u201d the president continued, referring to ousted dictator Nicolas Maduro\u2019s security forces. \u201cI don\u2019t like that. Somebody else would say, \u2018Oh, that\u2019s wonderful.\u2019 I don\u2019t like that.
\u201cSo yeah, it\u2019s limited by my morality. And I have a very high grade of morality, so therefore it\u2019s limited.\u201d<\/p>\n