Shumita Basu

would take strong action if the regime decides to execute protesters.

When asked what he wanted the endgame to be, Trump said he, quote, liked to win and listed off various deposed or killed leaders like ISIS's Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro.

But as Reuters notes, replicating those missions would not be straightforward.

Iran is a massive country.

It has an entrenched security state and a much more complex ethnic makeup than Venezuela.

The Wall Street Journal reports that Trump has been presented with a range of options, from diplomacy to military strikes, but no decision has been made.

Responding to Trump's latest comments, Iran's mission to the U.N.

said the U.S.

was manufacturing a pretext for military intervention.

Iran's leaders have weathered protests like this before, but that doesn't mean they can do so indefinitely.

Arash Azizi is a contributing writer for The Atlantic and a lecturer at Yale.

He told us the two key differences this time around.

But Azizi says that while some have rallied around the exiled former prince and son of the deposed Shah, Reza Pahlavi, there's little sign of a united opposition that could quickly assume power under one cause.

So far, Azizi says, the national security apparatus has shown little signs of cracking or turning on its 86-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

Protesters would need to overcome a sizable part of the population loyal to the regime, themselves out in force for counter-demonstrations in recent days, as well as powerful institutions adept at survival.

But even if it's holding firm right now, Azizi said last year's conflict with Israel and the U.S.

had fundamentally destabilized the regime, leaving it vulnerable.

Today, foreign ministers of Denmark and Greenland will meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President J.D.

Vance at the White House.

The meeting comes on the heels of President Trump's continued threats to take over the autonomous territory of Greenland.