Trump post said US is ‘locked and loaded and ready to go’ to intervene in Iran protests

A claim that U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. might intervene in ongoing protests in Iran circulated on social media in early January 2026. 

Social media users, particularly on X (archived, archived, archived), shared purported screenshots of a post in which Trump allegedly proclaimed, “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.” Screenshots of the alleged post included the typo “shots” instead of “shoots.”

Some of Trump’s supporters shared the claim with approving comments, while detractors criticized what they saw as overreach into a foreign country’s politics.

U.S. President Donald Trump: 

“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.”

Contributed by @AZ_Intel_. pic.twitter.com/MeOHORic7l

— Open Source Intel (@Osint613) January 2, 2026

The social media post shared in the claim was correctly attributed to Trump. 

Trump made the post to his Truth Social account at 2:58 a.m. ET Jan. 2, 2026. The post also appeared on Trump’s Truth, an archive of all of Trump’s posts on the platform. 

The full post read:

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

Trump was commenting on protests in Iran that began on Dec. 29, 2025, following the country’s currency hitting a record low.

The Associated Press reported that the currency’s depreciation was increasing prices for food and other household items and that a reported gasoline price increase could worsen tensions in the country.

On Jan. 1, the AP reported at least seven deaths in the protests but noted that “state-run media did not fully acknowledge the violence,” leading to uncertainty about the numbers and identities of the dead.

The reported deaths of protesters appeared to have inspired Trump’s post.

Ali Larijani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, responded to Trump’s comment with a post on X (archived, translated from Arabic by X) reading, “Trump must realize that U.S. intervention in this internal matter will lead to destabilizing the entire region and destroying American interests. The American people must know that Trump is the one who started this adventure, and they should pay attention to the safety of their soldiers.”

In June 2025, the U.S. got involved in Israel’s conflict with Iran when it attacked three Iranian nuclear sites. At the time, the AP reported that Trump, who did not have congressional authorization for his actions, said there would be further strikes if Iran retaliated against the U.S.

For further reading on Trump’s social media posts, Snopes previously confirmed that Trump’s Christmas message on Truth Social highlighted the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.