![](\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/img-assets\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/GettyImages-2254670170-e1768152374905.jpg?w=2048\")
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Protests in Iran appeared to intensify over the weekend, representing the biggest challenge to the regime\u2019s rule in years, as President Donald Trump considers ways to respond.<\/p>\n
The mounting unrest comes as Tehran\u2019s piecemeal efforts to address an economic crisis have done little to appease Iranians. Since protests began late last month, the government has offered words of sympathy, fired the central bank\u2019s chief, and announced plans to\u00a0provide most people with a monthly payment of about 1\u00a0million Iranian tomans\u2014equivalent to $7. <\/p>\n
Instead of spending $10 billion annually to subsidize imports, that money will instead go directly to 80 million Iranians in the form of credit to buy certain goods. <\/p>\n
But the $7 monthly payments offer little relief to beleaguered consumers who are suffering from food inflation of 64%. It\u2019s made worse by a 60% crash in the currency\u2019s value since June, when Iran and Israel fought a 12-day war that was capped by the U.S. bombing of Tehran\u2019s nuclear facilities.<\/p>\n
Now, what began as a protest among merchants in Tehran\u2019s bazaars has spread to students as well as Iran\u2019s working and middle classes all across the country.<\/p>\n
The security forces that keep the regime in power have not escaped hardship either. While human rights groups estimate hundreds have died from the government\u2019s crackdown, Iranians say it\u2019s not as severe as it could be.<\/p>\n
\u201cSecurity and law enforcement people are facing the same economic issues and high prices, themselves,\u201d a protester in Tehran told the New York Times<\/em>. \u201cThey are not fighting back wholeheartedly.\u201d<\/p>\n Meanwhile, Trump has threatened Iran if the regime kills protesters and doubled down on that Friday, when he said the U.S. would \u201cstart shooting\u201d if authorities fired on demonstrators. <\/p>\n With the violence worsening, Trump is looking at ways to follow through. Reports said that administration officials have already started discussing options to attack Iran again. On Sunday, sources told the Wall Street Journal<\/em> that Trump will be briefed on Tuesday with Secretary of State\u00a0Marco Rubio, Defense Secretary\u00a0Pete Hegseth\u00a0and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine also due to attend.<\/p>\n In addition to military strikes, other options include boosting antigovernment sources online, cyber attacks, and more economic sanctions, the report said.<\/p>\n But the Journal<\/em> added that the Pentagon hasn\u2019t sent any forces to the region and that the redeployment of the a USS Gerald R. Ford<\/em> aircraft carrier to South America means there are none in the Middle East or Europe now.<\/p>\n The U.S. raid on Venezuela last week to capture Nicolas Maduro could weigh on military considerations for Iran as a large armada of Navy ships remain in the Caribbean and continue to enforce a \u201cquarantine\u201d on the country\u2019s oil. <\/p>\n But Trump has shown his appetite for more foreign intervention hasn\u2019t abated, even as the reality of a years-long commitment to rebuild Venezuela\u2019s shattered oil industry sets it.<\/p>\n On Sunday, he sent another warning via social media to Cuba, which had benefited from economic assistance when Maduro was in power but is now feeling more strains.<\/p>\n \u201cTHERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA \u2013 ZERO!\u201d Trump said in a post. \u201cI strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n #Irans #monthly #payments #fail #ease #unrest #economic #crisis #Trump #eyes #military #options<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Protests in Iran appeared to i… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11420,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[359,486,2653,310,3096,2315,6466,6468,1136,3345,4725,1603,599,7310,3512],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11419"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11420"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}