When Iranian protesters took to the streets last month in the deadliest domestic unrest since the 1979 revolution, they carried handwritten signs addressed to US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
They renamed streets after the American president. They filmed video messages pleading for intervention from Washington and Jerusalem. They believed explicit warnings from Trump against killing demonstrators meant something. But they were wrong.
US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi are set to meet in Istanbul in an effort to revive diplomacy over the long-running dispute about Iran’s nuclear program and dispel fears of a new regional war. A regional diplomat said representatives from countries such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt would also participate.
This is the same regime that, according to eyewitness accounts and smuggled messages, committed what one Iranian described as “a crime against humanity” during the crackdown. The same regime that shut down the internet for over three weeks to hide mass arrests and killings.
This is also the same man who, for years, criticized presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden over their handling of Iran, repeatedly arguing that engagement and negotiation only strengthened the regime. In a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee in March 2016, Trump slammed the Obama-era nuclear agreement as “catastrophic” and portrayed it as a giveaway that rewarded Tehran while gaining little in return.
Trump’s pivot has left both Iranians and their supporters flustered.
“If it ends like this, he will be remembered as the worst president ever for Iranians,” one Iranian who managed to flee told The Jerusalem Post.
The president posted on Truth Social last month that help was coming. Iranian protesters, desperate and dying in the streets, took him at his word. Then the regime did exactly what Trump warned them against doing. They killed and shot protesters in cold blood. They arrested thousands and went into hospitals to execute wounded demonstrators. Trump’s response? Send warships as props for negotiations.
One Iranian in the diaspora managed a five-minute phone call with a friend inside the country before it was cut off.
“What I heard was out of a nightmare,” he told the Post. “Much worse than we are being told and shown.”
How authoritarians manage US presidents
The terms of the Istanbul talks reveal the administration’s priorities. Trump has demanded zero uranium enrichment, limits on ballistic missiles, and an end to support for regional proxies. Missing from the agenda is any accountability for the massacres of protesters and justice for political prisoners.
The regime understands this dynamic perfectly. Tehran’s clerical rulers reportedly view the ballistic missile program as a bigger obstacle to a deal than uranium enrichment. They are prepared to show “flexibility,” including handing over 400 kg of highly enriched uranium. They know Trump wants a win. They know the protesters are now locked in their homes, giving the regime the one resource it desperately needed: time. Time to eliminate witnesses. Time to consolidate control. Time to craft a narrative for international consumption.
This is how authoritarians learn to manage American presidents. Weather the initial outrage, then kill your opponents while the West is watching. Then wait. Eventually, it will pass.
Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Egypt are set to attend the Istanbul meeting, watching carefully as Trump legitimizes a regime still washing blood from its hands. Israel, which has systematically degraded Iran’s proxy network from Hamas to Hezbollah to the Houthis, sees an American president rushing to cut a deal with a weakened adversary rather than pressing the advantage.
The protesters begged for help because they believed Trump’s warnings. They renamed their streets because they thought American power would protect them, and they were slaughtered anyway. Now, Trump is prepared to sit and deal with this regime.
As it stands, he has betrayed the Iranian people, and they are unlikely to ever forgive him for this. But it’s not too late. President Trump, topple this regime.