President Donald Trump suggested the U.S. is ready to aid protesters in Iran if authorities crack down on the unrest, prompting a top Iranian official to threaten retaliation against U.S. forces in the region.

Trump’s comments in an early-morning Truth Social post — including a warning that the U.S. is “locked and loaded and ready to go” — rhetorically inject his administration into a swell of protests against worsening economic conditions that set off clashes between security forces and civilians across Iran.

Ali Larijani, a veteran politician who heads Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, responded on X that the U.S. “should be mindful of their soldiers’ safety.”

“Trump should know that U.S. interference in this internal matter would mean destabilizing the entire region and destroying America’s interests,” Larijani said. “We distinguish between the stance of the protesting shopkeepers and the actions of disruptive actors.”

The U.S.’s military presence in the region includes forces in Iraq and the Persian Gulf.

“If Iran shots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” Trump said in a Truth Social post at about 3 a.m. Washington time Friday. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go.”

Trump didn’t specify what actions he might consider and the White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump threatened Iran over the separate issue of its nuclear weapons program earlier in the week.

At least seven people in four Iranian cities have been killed in the clashes, the Associated Press reported.

Protests over a currency slump and soaring prices spread beyond Tehran to cities across the country. The rial’s crash to a record low on Sunday worsened an economic crisis stemming from crippling international sanctions.

In Fasa, a city of about 150,000 people in south-central Iran, state-affiliated Nour News showed protesters storming the governor’s office, setting fires and throwing rocks.

The unrest continued even after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian sought to appease protesters on Tuesday, pledging to revise planned tax increases and calling demands for change legitimate.

Trump’s comments on Iran are the latest example of his threats to launch targeted military operations to protect what the administration says are U.S. interests without getting embroiled in enduring wars. Those actions include bombing Iran’s nuclear program, striking Houthi rebels in Yemen, targeting alleged narco-trafficking boats in the Caribbean and a drone strike in Venezuela.

Trump “watched Netanyahu and the United States strike Iran and Iran’s allies in various ways in the last two years that achieved a lot of effects with limited risk, so far at least,” said Michael O’Hanlon, director of foreign policy research at the Brookings Institution. “And maybe that makes him a little bit overconfident that he can threaten these kinds of uses of force.”

The approach has at times pitted different factions within the Republican party against each other, with some advocating for more restraint abroad, especially with midterms approaching and American voters focused on affordability concerns.

Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican who’s become a frequent critic of the president, responded Friday on X to Trump’s post by arguing that “we have problems at home and shouldn’t be wasting military resources on another country’s internal affairs” and asserting that any strikes on Iran would require Congressional authorization.

“This threat isn’t about freedom of speech in Iran; it’s about the dollar, oil, and Israel,” Massie said.

By contrast, Senator Lindsey Graham, a traditionally hawkish Republican from South Carolina, backed Trump’s comments on Iran, saying in a social media post that the president was “on pace to surpass the great Ronald Reagan” when it comes to “peace and standing up to evil,” and that it’s “time to Make Iran Great Again.”

Trump on Monday warned of potential strikes against Iran after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, citing concerns Tehran is rebuilding the nuclear program and expanding its ballistic missile capabilities, following joint U.S.-Israeli strikes in June.

O’Hanlan said it appears that Trump isn’t preoccupied with “giving something to the restrainers” even if he wrestles with their arguments. Instead, he’s likely feeling “he’s become a president who’s pretty good at, in his mind at least, avoiding escalation, using military force in limited doses.”

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—With assistance from Arsalan Shahla, Dana Khraiche, John Bowker, Magan Crane and Laura Davison.

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