President Donald Trump remained tight-lipped on Wednesday night on whether the U.S. military will strike Iran in the wake of the regime’s brutal crackdown on nationwide protests.
When asked by CNBC’s Joe Kernen in Davos, Switzerland, whether there would be further action against the Islamic Republic, Trump replied, “could be.”
He elaborated, “We hope there’s not going to be further action, but, you know, they’re shooting people indiscriminately in the streets, and, this is a big thing for me, they were going to hang—hang—837, mostly young, people.”
The Iranian regime went on a killing spree in the second week of January to suppress anti-government protests that broke out nationwide on Dec. 28. Tehran further stated that it would execute in public protesters that it detained.
During the CNBC interview on Wednesday, Trump went on to mention the attack on Iran, named “Operation Midnight Hammer,” that the U.S. carried out in June against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites.
Iran “is a rough place. It’s a place that we hit very hard—ending the nuclear [facilities]. They would have had a nuclear weapon long ago ... Probably a month after we hit, had we not hit. And we hit them hard with B2 bombers,” Trump said.
“We just ordered additional 25 B2 bombers. ... The one thing I’ve been strong on, they can’t do the nuclear. ... If they do it, [a U.S. attack] will happen again. They’ve got to stop with the nuclear. They keep experimenting with nuclear and, you know, at some point they’re going to get the idea that they can’t do that. They’re just not going to be able to do that. Can’t let them have it,” he added.
WATCH IN FULL: President Donald J. Trump's exclusive interview from Davos with @JoeSquawk on @CNBC pic.twitter.com/vZLqGNUR4r
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) January 21, 2026
On Jan. 17, Trump told Politico that “It’s time to look for new leadership in Iran.”
The U.S. president spoke in light of a series of posts made earlier by Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on X.
“The man is a sick man who should run his country properly and stop killing people. His country is the worst place to live anywhere in the world because of poor leadership,” Trump added.
CBS News reported on Jan. 13 that sources inside and outside Iran believe the toll from the regime’s crackdown could be as high as 20,000, with newly verified video showing hundreds of bodies stacked at a morgue near Tehran.
The true scope of the bloodshed has been obscured by a near-total shutdown of internet and phone service imposed by Iran’s rulers over the past five days, with only limited outgoing calls allowing word of the killings to leak out.
Washington’s Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee spoke with Israel’s public broadcaster Kan on Thursday morning, playing down expectations that the U.S. will attack Iran.
“I don’t think that that’s something that is being calculated right now. Because everyone is watching to see what the people of Iran are doing. What do they want to see happen. And the protests are growing and that’s significant,” he said.
Huckabee expressed hope that 2026 “will be the year in which the people of Iran—not the people of some other country—the people of Iran say: ‘We’ve had enough.’”
However, if an attack were to take place, the diplomat said that Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will “act in concert,” adding that each country will ultimately act independently and according to its interest.
He added, “Think about how much of the horrific things that have happened to human beings around the planet, especially felt here in Israel after Oct. 7, [2023], the masterminding of that came out of Iran.”
