President Donald Trump revealed on Monday that he is using tariffs to target Iran, appearing to mark the administration’s latest effort to support anti-government protesters seeking to topple their country’s Islamic regime.

“Effectively immediately,” countries conducting business with Iran will be forced to pay a 25% tariff on “any and all business” done with the United States, according to Trump. China, the United Arab Emirates, India, and Turkey rank among Iran’s largest trading partners. 

“This Order is final and conclusive,” the president wrote in a statement to Truth Social. 

In the latest wave of protests, which have gripped the country for roughly two weeks amid worsening economic conditions, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s regime has killed at least 500 people and arrested 10,600 people, according to U.S.-based rights group Human Rights Activists in Iran. The number killed could be as high as 2,000, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights organization said Saturday. 

Over the weekend, Iran’s state-controlled media aired videos showing mass casualties wrapped in black bags in and outside a morgue. The “majority of them are ordinary people, and their families are ordinary people as well,” state media said. It has been difficult for independent sources to verify the numbers, as the internet is down in Iran and phone lines have been cut off. 

Trump has suggested U.S. military action backing protesters against the Iranian regime could be imminent. At the same time, he has urged the ayatollah to pursue peace talks and democratic reforms. Airstrikes are one of many options that are on the table, though “diplomacy is always the first option,” for Trump, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Monday. A senior U.S. official told CBS News the previous day that the president had been briefed on “new options” for military strikes in Iran. 

“The leaders of Iran called,” Trump told reporters Sunday on Air Force One, adding that “a meeting is being set up … They want to negotiate.”

But he warned Iran may have already crossed a “red line.” 

“We may have to act before a meeting. … There seem to be some people killed that aren’t supposed to be killed,” the president said, revealing he is receiving hourly briefings on the situation. “They rule through violence.” 

Many protesters are calling for Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of Iran’s last shah, or king, to lead the country. 

Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi ruled Iran for nearly four decades before his authoritarian, monarchy-style government, which was aligned with the West and open at times to democratic reforms, was toppled during the 1979 Iranian Revolution, which installed the ayatollah at the head of an Islamic theocracy. 

His son, who now lives in a Washington, D.C., suburb, was undergoing fighter pilot training in the U.S when the revolution swept his homeland. 

Protesters hold up placards and flags as they demonstrate outside the Iranian Embassy in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)

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Over the weekend, the exiled Pahlavi said he stands ready to return to Iran “at the first possible opportunity,” should Khamenei be overthrown. He credited Trump with having a “tremendous positive effect” on the cause of freedom in Iran. 

“Let’s hope that we can permanently seal this legacy by liberating Iran so that we and you can make Iran great again,” Pahlavi said. “Let’s partner on this and have a better future for our countries and for our people.”