Earlier this week, we reported on widespread protests taking place in Iran.

The demonstrations have turned ugly, with at least six people already killed.

Donald Trump has said that he will step in if Iran starts killing protesters, but Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) is once again planning on pushing back against the president.

At least six dead

The protests currently underway are the worst the country has seen in years, and they are building with every passing day.

This present state of unrest started due to a currency crash, but participation in the demonstrations subsequently extended to students, and then business owners started to close their stores to join in as well.

The first person killed in the upheaval was a Revolutionary Guard member, with Saeed Pourali, a deputy governor in Lorestan province, stating that he “was martyred ... at the hands of rioters during protests in this city in defense of public order.” But since then, several other deaths have been reported as a direct result of protesters clashing with the Guard.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has stated that he is willing to negotiate with demonstrators, but I am not sure what there is to negotiate, if the currency collapse truly is at the center of the protests.

Trump will intervene

With there now being blood in the streets, Trump has responded as to how he might react if things continue to escalate.

The president stated, "If Iran shots [sic] and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue.”

He continued, "We are locked and loaded and ready to go. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J.TRUMP."

Such action would significantly test the powers of the presidency, and there is a real question of whether Trump can order such a move without prior congressional approval, a scenario that brings us back to Trump’s ongoing thorn in the side, Rep. Massie.

It’s a no

It was not a surprise to see Massie flex his muscles over the situation, but the way he did it was rather interesting.

Trump has already been getting hit by Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Lauren Boebert (R-CO) for not putting Americans before foreign concerns, and Massie just piled on.

He stated, "[W]e have problems at home and shouldn’t be wasting military resources on another country’s internal affairs."

I think that is a rather obtuse way of looking at this particular situation, as the United States clearly cannot just sit back and watch massacres taking place in the streets. With a fair degree of resistance to Trump starting to grow, I am really interested to see how it plays out in terms of whether there will be a groundswell of support for the president or if the GOP will say that Iranians need to handle this one on their own.