‘Help is on its way,’ Trump tells Iranians as he urges them to keep protesting – live updates

Has Donald Trump made up his mind?published at 15:49 GMT

15:49 GMT

Paul Adams
World Affairs correspondent

President Trump’s typically all-caps social media post on Tuesday has raised the stakes dramatically.

Spurring on Iranian protestors, urging them to take over Iranian institutions and log the names of their “killers and abusers”, sounded like the words of a president convinced that the Iranian regime could soon fall.

And his post contained the clearest hint yet that Mr Trump is set on some kind of direct intervention.

“HELP IS ON ITS WAY.”

Senior officials are due to discuss possible courses of action at a White House meeting today.

At the weekend, President Trump suggested he might be willing to pursue diplomatic channels, following what he described as an Iranian offer of talks.

But it seems diplomacy has, for now, been set aside.

“I have cancelled all meetings with Iranian officials until the senseless killing of protesters STOPS,” he wrote on Truth Social.

Online, all-caps threats are a familiar feature of this president’s leadership style, and he hasn’t always followed through.

But having promised to come to the rescue of Iranian protesters, and with hundreds – perhaps thousands – of them now dead, Donald Trump appears to have made up his mind.

It’s hard to see him backing down now.