Trump Issues Dire Warning To Iranian Regime As Death Toll Estimates Soar

President Donald Trump on Tuesday morning issued a social media post strongly encouraging the Iranian people to keep rebelling against the murderous regime while warning that he wants the names of those responsible for killing protesters.

“Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Save the names of the killers and abusers. They will pay a big price. I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian Officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS. HELP IS ON ITS WAY. MIGA!!! PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP.”

In mid-June 2025, after Israel’s 12-day war against Iran but before the U.S. launched strikes against Iran’s nuclear facilities, Trump warned the regime of possible action in a post on Truth Social, writing:

I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to “just do it,” but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn’t get it done. I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come – And they know how to use it. Certain Iranian hardliner’s spoke bravely, but they didn’t know what was about to happen. They are all DEAD now, and it will only get worse! There has already been great death and destruction, but there is still time to make this slaughter, with the next already planned attacks being even more brutal, come to an end. Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire. No more death, no more destruction, JUST DO IT, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.

Estimates of the staggering number of Iranians killed by the regime vary; the New York Post reported on Tuesday that the death toll has surged to roughly 2,000, a figure that was confirmed by an Iranian official. Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) stated, “according to some estimates, more than 6,000 may have been killed.”

Iran International reported on Tuesday:

Iran International’s Editorial Board has published a statement titled “The killing of 12,000 Iranians will not be buried in silence.”… Over the past two days, Iran International’s editorial board has reviewed – through a rigorous, multi-stage process and in accordance with established professional standards – information received from a source close to the Supreme National Security Council; two sources in the presidential office; accounts from several sources within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in the cities of Mashhad, Kermanshah, and Isfahan; testimonies from eyewitnesses and families of those killed; field reports; data linked to medical centers; and information provided by doctors and nurses in various cities. Based on these reviews, we have concluded that: In the largest killing in Iran’s contemporary history – carried out largely over two consecutive nights, Thursday and Friday, January 8 and 9 – at least 12,000 people were killed.

In terms of geographic scope, intensity of violence, and the number of deaths in a short time span, this killing is unprecedented in Iran’s history. Based on information received, those killed were mainly shot by forces of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the Basij.

Sources told CBS News Tuesday that as many as 20,000 have been killed.