President Donald Trump reasserted American support Tuesday for protesters in Iran, after sending the opposite message during a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron.
“The United States of America supports the brave people of Iran who are protesting for their FREEDOM,” Trump wrote on Twitter. “We have under the Trump Administration, and always will!”
Earlier Tuesday, Trump responded to a reporter who asked if the United States supported the protesters in Iran by saying, “I don’t want to comment on that but the answer is no.”
Trump indicated afterward that he thought the question was whether the United States was supporting the Iran protesters financially.
Amnesty International reported that more than 200 people were killed in Iran during the protests that began in November, an unprecedented amount of violence leveled by Iranian forces.
Iranian state television admitted Tuesday that security forces had shot and killed “rioters.” Iranian leaders also shut down the Internet in the country to stop the protests from spreading.
Trump commented on Twitter, criticizing Iranian leaders for their actions in November.
“Iran has become so unstable that the regime has shut down their entire Internet System so that the Great Iranian people cannot talk about the tremendous violence taking place within the country,” he wrote. “They want ZERO transparency, thinking the world will not find out the death and tragedy that the Iranian Regime is causing!”