Trump’s Unexpected Opportunity

Mark Dubowitz and Behnam Ben Taleblu: “Periodic mass protests have marked Iranian life for nearly two decades—the Green Movement of 2009; the fuel protests of 2019; the Women, Life, Freedom uprising of 2022–23. Each wave was brutally repressed. But never before has the Islamic Republic been so weakened at home and so vulnerable to pressure from abroad. The possibility of overthrowing Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime is no longer theoretical.”

“For President Trump, these protests present a historic opportunity to cement his legacy as the Ronald Reagan of his era. Reagan did not collapse the Soviet Union through military force. He did it by applying overwhelming economic, ideological, and proxy pressure from the outside—while supporting dissidents on the inside. Trump can do the same with the Islamic Republic.”