❓WHAT HAPPENED: President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday encouraged the people of Iran to continue their mass demonstrations against the Islamic Republic and its leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, stating: “Help is on its way.”
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: President Trump, the U.S. military, anti-regime demonstrators in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Islamic Republic military forces.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Tuesday, January 13, 2026, during a speech at The Detroit Economic Club.
💬KEY QUOTE: “To all Iranian patriots—keep protesting, take over your institutions if possible, and save the names of the killers and the abusers… because they’ll pay a very big price. All I say to them is, ‘Help is on its way.'” — President Trump
🎯IMPACT: The Trump White House has confirmed the President’s national security advisors have briefed him on a number of potential actions that could be taken against the Iranian regime.
President Donald J. Trump on Tuesday delivered a powerful message to the people of Iran, encouraging them to continue their mass demonstrations against the Islamic Republic and its leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. “Help is on its way,” Trump stated while speaking to The Detroit Economic Club.
“To all Iranian patriots—keep protesting, take over your institutions if possible, and save the names of the killers and the abusers… because they’ll pay a very big price,” President Trump said. He added, “All I say to them is, ‘Help is on its way.'”
“TO ALL IRANIAN PATRIOTS — keep protesting, take over your institutions if possible, and save the names of the killers and the abusers… because they’ll pay a very big price,” says @POTUS.
“All I say to them is, ‘Help is on its way.'” pic.twitter.com/A1hX0AwE1N
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 13, 2026
For over two weeks now, demonstrators have taken to the streets across Iran, often resulting in violent clashes with regime forces. Currently, estimates of the number killed stand somewhere between 2,000 and as many as 20,000—though a precise number has been difficult to determine due to cuts in cell phone communication and Internet access initiated by the Islamic government.
Meanwhile, the Trump White House has confirmed the President’s national security advisors have briefed him on a number of potential actions that could be taken against the Iranian regime. Trump has repeatedly warned the Grand Ayatollah that if demonstrators were harmed, it would provoke a U.S. military response. Subsequently, the U.S. government on Tuesday told all Americans to leave Iran immediately.
The stability of Iran’s regime has been in question since U.S. military strikes last year that crippled its nuclear program, and Israeli strikes against senior Iranian military figures and Hamas leaders hiding in the country. Iran was unable to offer any resistance to the U.S. strikes and could only muster an ineffective missile response to the Israeli attacks.
Notably, the threat of U.S. military reprisals over the harming of Iranian protestors comes on the heels of President Trump ordering a wildly successful military operation in Venezuela that resulted in American forces capturing the country’s dictator, Nicolás Maduro.
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