This photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows a Boeing F/A-18E Super Hornet landing on the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln in the Indian Ocean on Jan. 22, 2026. (Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Daniel Kimmelman/U.S. Navy via AP)
U.S. President Donald Trump has said the situation with Iran is “in flux” and confirmed he has sent a “big armada” to the Middle East, hours after the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln arrived in the region.
Trump’s remarks came as regional anxiety mounted, with the several media outlets reporting concerns that Washington could carry out a military strike on Iran in the coming days.
Officials cited by the papers warned that any such action could trigger retaliatory attacks by Iran and its allies on U.S. military bases.
“We have a big armada near Iran, bigger than Venezuela,” Trump told Axios, referencing a naval force he recently assembled in the Caribbean ahead of the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro earlier this month.
The deployment included the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford, which had been pulled from the Middle East — leaving the region with a reduced U.S. naval presence at a time of widespread protests in Iran, when Trump publi cly assured demonstrators that “help is on the way.”
Trump declined to discuss specific operational plans presented by his national security team but emphasized that diplomacy remains an option. “They want to talk. I know they want to. They’ve called many times. They want to talk,” he said.
A senior U.S. official, meanwhile, told reporters during a call that Washington is "open for business" if the Iranians "want to contact us."
The protests in Iran started in late December 2025, driven by economic grievances, but turned into a mass movement against the Islamic republic, with huge street demonstrations for several days from Jan. 8.
Rights groups have accused authorities of launching an unprecedented crackdown by shooting directly at the protesters under the cover of an internet shutdown.
The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency said that it had confirmed the deaths of more than 6,000 people in the wave of protests suppressed by Iran's security forces, but emphasized the actual toll could be several times higher.
The clerical leadership that took power after the 1979 Islamic revolution remains in place despite the demonstrations, with many opponents of the system looking to outside intervention as the most likely driver of change.
Trump had repeatedly warned Iran that if it killed protesters, the United States would intervene militarily and also encouraged Iranians to take over state institutions, saying "help is on the way."
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has warned against intervention and said the country was "confident in its own capabilities."
In apparent reference to the Lincoln, he added: "The arrival of such a battleship is not going to affect Iran's determination and seriousness to defend the Iranian nation."
