Jan 2 – U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said that if Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, the United States of America will come to their rescue. “We are locked and loaded and ready to go,” he said in a Truth Social post. This follows the deaths of several people as Iran’s biggest protests in three years over economic hardship turned violent across multiple provinces. The clashes between protesters and security forces mark a significant escalation in the unrest that has spread across the country since shopkeepers began protesting on Sunday over the government’s handling of a sharp currency slide and rapidly rising prices. Iran’s economy has struggled for years since the U.S. reimposed sanctions in 2018, after Trump withdrew from an international nuclear agreement during his first term. United States President Donald Trump warned on Friday that his country is prepared to step in and protect Iranian protesters if their government starts shooting at them and killing them. The Iranian state-affiliated Fars News Agency previously reported that several people have already been killed in the protests that began earlier this week in the country’s capital city of Tehran, before spreading to other parts of Iran. The protesters called for a change in Iran’s leadership due to high living costs, following the Iranian currency, the rial, hitting its all-time low against the dollar.