Trump 'torn' as he urges 'AK-47' uprising in Iran - but warns thousands more could die

 Donald Trump has sensationally claimed that Iran's own people could be set to overthrow the current regime, but only if they are suitably armed.

The US president has consistently pushed for the removal of the country's Islamic Republic, going as far as killing the Middle Eastern country's leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in February 2026 and then calling on the Iranian people to 'take over your government'.

The president spoke to the people of Iran directly, saying: "When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. America is backing you with overwhelming strength. Now is the time to seize control of your destiny and unleash the prosperous and glorious future that is close within your reach."

And while the President is still hopeful that regime change will come from within, he admitted that he is "torn" about the loss of life that such an overthrow would require.

Speaking on The Hugh Hewitt Show , Trump said, “I’m very torn on it, because they lost 42,000 people in the first two weeks. I don’t really want to see that. They have to have guns. And I think they’re getting some guns. As soon as they have guns, they’ll fight as good as anybody there is.”

He said, “The problem is that you can’t. If you have five people with a gun and 250,000 [without a gun], the five people with a gun, assuming it’s used fast enough. . . they’re going to win.”

“You can’t have an unarmed population against people with AK-47s and stand there, even if you have 250,000 people.”

He also pointed to brutal crackdowns by the regime, saying, “They killed the wrestler, he’s actually a world-class wrestler. They killed him and his two friends. They hung him from a crane in the square. And so, we’re not dealing with your typical people.”

Trump appears to have been referencing Navid Afkari, a well-known Iranian wrestler who was executed by the Iranian government in 2020 after being accused of involvement in anti-government protests.

While emphasising that any overthrow would be difficult for the Iranian people alone, Trump continued his assessment of the Iranian regime as vulnerable.

He said: “They’ve been depleted, a lot of the people fighting don’t want to fight anymore. They’re not getting paid anymore, from what I’m hearing, because we have obliterated them, like, in the military, we’ve done the same thing to them financially, economically.”

"They’ve got a lot of problems, but we’ll see what happens. We have all the cards.”