POLITICS: Iran’s brave protesters fight for freedom — and Trump can help

Iran is once again convulsed by mass protest — and this time, the ground beneath the ayatollahs seems to be genuinely cracking.

The end of Tehran’s totalitarian repression and global terror may be in sight.

For the United States, the task now is not simply to continue exerting “maximum pressure” on the regime.

It’s time to pair that pressure with a clearly declared policy of crippling the Islamic Republic through maximum support for the Iranians who are determined to overthrow it.

When President Donald Trump restored maximum sanctions pressure last February, he was clear about its goals: Deny Iran a nuclear weapon, dismantle its terror proxy network and stop its ballistic missile program.

During last year’s 12-day war between Israel and Iran, as the Israeli Air Force cleared the skies and struck at Iran’s command and control, nuclear sites and ballistic missile capabilities, the United States reinforced Trump’s message with strikes on three nuclear facilities, including the deeply buried Fordow enrichment site.

What Washington has not yet done — and must now do — is explicitly commit to breaking the regime’s capacity to rule.

That does not mean another Iraq or Afghanistan.

It does not mean American invasion forces, nation-building or occupation.

Regime change in Iran won’t come from US troops marching on Tehran, but from Iranians in the streets, backed by American power and Israeli action aimed squarely at immobilizing the regime’s repression apparatus.

The Iranian people have already made their choice clear.

This protest wave, building on uprisings stretching back to 2009, leaves no doubt about their aspirations.

Nor is there any doubt where Trump stands: He has warned Iran’s leaders that the United States remains “locked and loaded” if the regime again resorts to mass slaughter.

But courage alone cannot defeat a heavily armed dictatorship.

The regime has the guns. The protesters largely do not.

And the dictators are already killing, imprisoning and torturing Iranians.

Left unaided, bravery will be crushed by bullets, prisons and torture chambers.

This is where a declared US policy — executed with Israel — can be decisive.

Through maximum support, Washington should openly back Israeli kinetic and covert operations by using American cyber and intelligence capabilities to degrade the regime’s repression apparatus: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, internal security forces, intelligence services, and command-and-control systems that keep the ayatollahs in power.

The objective is to neutralize the machinery of repression — leveling the battlefield for unarmed civilians facing an armed regime.

At the same time, the United States should surge non-kinetic support by enabling secure communications, funding labor strikes and helping protesters organize and sustain momentum.

Cyber operations can disrupt regime coordination.

Psychological pressure and digital influence campaigns can fracture elite loyalty.

Incentives can encourage defections.

Regime support networks at home and abroad can be dismantled.

Secure communications for protesters are critical. For that, Washington must defeat the regime’s reflexive response — shutting down the internet.

The administration should expand free VPN programs and work with private-sector partners like Starlink to keep Iranians connected.

If Iranians can’t communicate, they can’t mobilize.

Opposition now spans Iranian society. Labor unions are staging strikes reminiscent of Poland’s Solidarity movement.

The merchant class has joined in, with Tehran’s Grand Bazaar — once a pillar of regime support — shuttered in protest.

Iranian women remain at the forefront, defying coercive dress codes and reigniting the spirit of the 2022-2023 Women, Life, Freedom protest movement.

Maximum American support can prevent these movements from being crushed by fear, fatigue and violence.

That’s why the US must also look to the days and weeks ahead.

Key moments on the Iranian calendar — most notably Bahman (Jan. 21 – Feb. 19), the politically charged month that marks the collapse of the Shah’s regime and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, and Nowrouz, the Persian New Year on March 20 — give Washington opportunities to amplify protest messaging and coordinate information campaigns.

The United States should also intensify diplomatic and economic pressure.

Allies must designate the IRGC as a terrorist organization, and sever or downgrade diplomatic ties with Tehran.

Regime officials at all levels should face targeted sanctions and asset freezes —  and frozen Iranian assets held abroad should be used to finance labor strike funds.

What Trump must avoid is retreat — or yet another futile attempt to negotiate with a regime that uses talks to buy time.

Opportunities like this come once in a generation. Not since 1979 has Iran’s regime been so vulnerable.

After nearly half a century of theocratic darkness, history has opened a narrow door.

President Trump should help push it open.

Mark Dubowitz is chief executive of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Ben Cohen is a senior analyst.