Iran: The Great Betrayal

Trump’s empty threat could have consequences far beyond the Islamic Republic.

by Robert Spencer| Jan 16, 2025

Screengrab via X

When the Iranian people rose up against their oppressors in 2009, Barack Obama looked the other way. When the Iranian people rose up against their oppressors in 2022, Old Joe Biden sent their oppressors billions of dollars. But Donald Trump was different.

On January 2, Trump wrote: “If Iran shots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue. We are locked and loaded and ready to go. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J.TRUMP.”

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and other entities set about killing peaceful protesters with impunity, whereupon Trump wrote on January 13: “Iranian Patriots, KEEP PROTESTING – TAKE OVER YOUR INSTITUTIONS!!! 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.”

The Iranian people trusted him. They kept protesting, even as the inhuman guardians of the Islamic Republic mowed them down in ever-increasing numbers, as many as 20,000. They renamed streets after him. They knew that he would send the help he promised. They knew he would help them see the end of the bloodthirsty and demonic regime that has murdered so very many Iranians since 1979. They knew they finally had someone who heard their cries. Someone they could count on.

Yet by Wednesday afternoon, something had changed. Trump said: “We have been told that the killing in Iran is stopping, it’s stopped, it is stopping. And, uh, there’s no plan for executions, or ex— an execution, or executions. So I’ve been told that on good authority, we’ll find out about it.”

There was no reason to believe this, and it was unclear whether or not Trump himself believed it. The Islamic Republic is built on terror and preserves itself through terror, for as an Islamic government, it follows the Qur’an’s guidance for how to deal with its opponents: “strike terror in the enemies of Allah” (8:60). The Islamic Republic will keep killing protesters as long as there is an Islamic Republic.

And despite Trump’s odd statement on Wednesday afternoon, that evening it looked as if the Islamic Republic was finally reaching its end. The mullahs cleared Iranian airspace in anticipation of an attack. The Iranian protesters envisioned the hour of their liberation. The world held its breath.

And the evening and the morning passed, and there was nothing. The Islamic Republic remained in place. Iranian airspace reopened. The mullahs breathed a sigh of relief.

On Thursday morning, Trump attempted a note of triumph: “FoxNews: ‘Iranian protester will no longer be sentenced to death after President Trump’s warnings. Likewise others.’ This is good news. Hopefully, it will continue!”

Unless this is a strategic feint, as many have claimed, and the promised attack is still in the works, apparently the Islamic Republic will continue as well, hiding its murders behind closed doors instead of parading them before the world. Trump’s promise of help has so far proven hollow. His encouragement of the protesters only ended up getting 20,000 of them killed.

Even worse, there are reports that Trump called off an attack at the last minute at the behest of Turkey, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia, three Sunni states that have long counted the Shi’ite Islamic Republic of Iran as an enemy, but whose solicitude for the well-being of the United States should not be taken for granted.

On Thursday, Reza Amiri Moghadam, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, said that Trump had told the Iranian government that the United States would not attack Iran.

If that proves to be true, and no attack comes, Trump’s promise of help to the protesters, and his exhortation to them to take to the streets, will stand as one of the most craven betrayals in world history. It will also have consequences far beyond the continuing existence of the malignant regime in Tehran. If no attack comes, Trump will have finally handed his opponents a weapon they can use to do him in.

After trying to frame Trump for crimes he didn’t commit, and after even trying to kill him, the leftists to whose plans and agenda Trump has done so much damage will be able to point to his promises to the Iranian people and say simply that Trump cannot be trusted. He is a man of empty words. And in this case, his empty threats led to the murder of 20,000 people.

Trump may have just given his enemies, whose evil endeavors he rolled back in so many areas, the weapon they need finally to do him in, and his movement as well. Trump’s empty threats could result in the final victory in the United States of the socialist internationalist authoritarians whose plan to turn the country into an open-borders socialist hellhole Trump has countered so comprehensively. In the end, he may not have betrayed the Iranians only.