For now, the public is in the dark if Trump has ordered a full-scale military attack on the Khamenei regime, but numerous news sources are reporting military assets are being staged to give the commander in chief an overwhelming attack force.
If the Middle East is a chess board, the biggest chess move so far is the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier. That supercarrier and its strike group are now leaving behind the South China Sea and streaming to the Middle East, according to numerous news outlets reviewed by AFN.
According to a Fox News story, military sources confirmed “numerous” air, sea, and land military assets are expected to flow into the region in coming days and weeks.
The source that spoke to Fox, which is likely Pentagon officials, said an attack on Iran will be “different and “more offensive” if the president decides on military action.
A related article by Newsweek showed the strike group’s path to get into position in the Indian Ocean, a trip that will take from six days to 10 depending on the news source.
In recent days, President Trump sent mixed signals to Iran’s regime and to the protesters being gunned down in the streets. After stating that Iran’s regime was crossing red lines by killing protesters, Trump went even farther when he assured “IRANIAN PATRIOTS” that “help is on its way” in a social media post.
At the same time that message of support was being relayed to Iranians, where internet access is being blocked, Iranians were surprised and alarmed hours later when Trump told reporters he trusted Iran’s leaders when they said the street killings had stopped.
Reacting to Trump’s comments, Iranian-born activist Nioh Berg said the regime will just “hang everyone at a later time” rather than right now.
“It will be considered a bigger betrayal than anything Obama ever did,” Berg wrote on X, referring to the 2009 uprising in Iran when President Obama failed to act when thousands were killed.
In comments to AFN, Iranian-American Marziyeh Amirizadeh said Trump backtracking from his promise of help will make him a "traitor" in the minds and hearts of Iranians.
"It will make him worse than Biden and Obama, who are known as traitors among Iranian people, because the amount of death is much higher this time," Amirizadeh said.
Amirizadeh, an American citizen who now lives in Georgia, was imprisoned in Iran with a friend after the regime's secret police caught her and her friend distributing Bibles.
Some political and military analysts suggested Trump’s diplomatic overture to the Iranian regime was a strategic ruse to let the ayatollahs think they were fooling the U.S. president.
If that theory is true, President Trump continued the ruse into Friday, today. When a reporter asked Trump about reports he backtracked from a planned attack, the president praised the regime for "canceling" 800 hangings.
"They didn’t hang anyone. They canceled the hangings. That had a big impact,” Trump said, seeming to confirm a planned attack had been called off.
Another observation, also from political analysts, is President Trump is well aware of Obama’s betrayal in 2009 and doesn’t want that same betrayal on his own record as a U.S. president.
In an interview with AFN, Iranian-born military analyst Sargis Sangari said the Trump administration has another diplomatic problem: Reza Pahlavi, the son of the Shah who was overthrown in 1979.
In the street protests, chants are calling for the return of Pahlavi, grandson of the first Shah, to replace Khamenei as leader of Iran.
Citing public statements from President Trump, however, Sangari pointed out the Trump administration is doubtful he is the best person to replace Khamenei and lead the fractured nation of 90 million.
"He seems very nice,” Trump pointedly told Reuters this week, “but I don't know how he'd play within his own country.”
“Their issue,” Sangari told AFN, “is that they just don’t believe that he can run the country without others having to run it for him.”
Asked about Trump's concern for Pahlavi, Amirizadeh said millions of Iranians want Pahlavi to return to power rather than other political parties in Iran, including so-called Reformists, who have aligned with the regime against the people.
"Standing behind the fake oppositions, and not the leader that Iranians wish to return and rule the country, is going to be seen as another betrayal by America," she warned.
Meanwhile, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Mike Waltz, told the U.N. Security Council this week Trump is a “man of action” who doesn’t engage in “endless talk” the UN is known for.
“He has made it clear all options are on the table to stop the slaughter,” Waltz said. “And no one should know that better than the leadership of the Iranian regime."
