PREPARED FOR WAR: Trump turns up pressure on Iran as CHAOS erupts

Now the numbers continue to rise. At least 646 civilians reportedly killed in Tehran, as thousands of protesters are rising up, speaking out against the Iranian regime and the country's weak economy. Inflation soaring. President Trump is warning Iran against any killings. The regime saying it is ready to negotiate, but also prepared for war.

White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt, yesterday.

Watch.

I think one thing President Trump is very good at is always keeping all of his options on the table. And airstrikes would be one of the many, many options that are on the table for the commander-in-chief. Diplomacy is always the first option for the president. There was an official from the Iranian government—I believe it was reported earlier that reached out to a member of the president's very close team, Special Envoy Whitkoff, expressing a far different tone than what you're seeing

publicly.

The U.S. State Department issuing a travel advisory warning all Americans, quote, to leave Iran now. Have a plan for departing Iran that does not rely on U.S. government help. Joining me now is Stevens, Incorporated Executive Vice President. She is former senior advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Mary Kissel, back with us.

Mary, great to see you.

Yeah, it's great to be back, Maria.

Thank you. Thank you so much for being here. This story has been incredible with these people rising in Iran.

It feels different this time than prior protests. How do you assess what's taking place right now? I think you're exactly right. It is very different, Maria, for many reasons. First of all, the regime has lost its proxies, thanks to the hard work of Israel and the US military assistance. The regime has an economic crisis,

which is far more severe than we've seen in prior years, with not just inflation, but the water crisis, which meant that it's lost its base of rural support. It's lost Venezuela, which was a big banking center for the regime. You know, these events that seem so disconnected actually are connected and have secondary consequences.

And, most importantly, you have a U.S. president who is voicing support for the Iranian people, and that's very, very different than what we saw back in 2008. So you put all those things together, and there's a real chance for positive change

here. You know, I mean, the Iranians are begging the Trump administration to get involved. And I wonder how much involvement you would expect and what that looks like, because President Trump is leaving everything on the table. We had Reza Pahlavi on, on Sunday. I spoke with the former crown prince.

And he's asking President Trump to get involved somehow and eliminate this leadership, the Ayatollah. Here's Reza Pahlavi with me, Sunday.

Watch. That kind of assistance will go a long way in letting the Iranian people prevail in this war that we have against this regime. And we need to cut the stakes head off for good, so it can no longer be a threat to Iranian interest, to American interest, to regional interest. And the only solution is to make sure that this regime goes down for good and the Iranian

people can liberate themselves, because they are, contrary to this regime, that is a sworn enemy of America. We Iranians are a friend to America. We proved it before, and we'll prove it again.

So what do you think here, Mary? What should the president do? How would you expect the U.S. to be involved here?

Well, you know, I think that these situations are often characterized as black or white, that the president either gets involved or he doesn't get involved. But the reality of American power is that we have a lot of options in between. We have, for instance, vast cyber capabilities that we could wield. We have the ability to give the Iranians, the ordinary Iranians, the ability to communicate with one another.

We could do the same thing, for instance, for the Cuban people. We could do the same thing for the Chinese people. You know, we have diplomatic powers where we could rally our allies in Europe and in other places to start preparing for a post-Islamist Iran, and we could broadcast that to the Iranian people. Iranian people are already risking their lives.

They're out on the streets. They can do this themselves. But I think we need to empower them, and that doesn't really necessarily mean us getting involved militarily. Now, the president may choose to do that. For instance, he could cut off the head of the IRGC, take out various oil-exporting facilities,

et cetera. And I'm sure that those are the options that Secretary of State Rubio and others are putting on the table for him.

Yeah, I mean, look, I think the Venezuela action galvanized some people and saw that the U.S. is not afraid of unconventional interference. Cuba responded to the president's warning to make a deal with Washington or receive no money or oil from Venezuela. The country's president wrote this on X, no one dictates what we do in Cuba.

Cuba does not aggress. It is aggressed upon by the United States for 66 years, and it does not threaten. It prepares, ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood, unquote. President Trump is expected to welcome Venezuelan

opposition leader Maria Corina Machado to the White House Thursday. What do you make of the Venezuelan story? And is Maria Machado the one that you think the people want?

Well, we'll see. Look, Maduro was not the representative of the Venezuelan people. In the first Trump administration, we recognized Juan Guaido as the elected leader of the Venezuelan people—millions of people voting for him. Maria Karina Machado, likewise, and her party are supported by the Venezuelan people. They're elected.

So, you know, these are the appropriate people to speak to. Now, there's a difficult transition ahead, lots of moving parts. I'm sure she'll have views on how she and her party infrastructure can be of help. But the immediate concern is safety and security, getting the colectivos off the streets, releasing the Venezuelan political prisoners. Why haven't we taken over the state media yet and talked directly to the Venezuelan people?

There are a lot of moving parts here. It's going to be an incredibly important meeting.

Do we know if there's support in Iran for Pahlavi, or is that also a question? President Trump has not gotten behind that solidly at all. He says, we'll see what the people say.

Yeah, I think that's the right move. Also, remember, Iran is not 100 percent Persian. There are many ethnic groups within Iran. So as I talk to investors, CEOs, I say, look, there are many scenarios here. You could see a weakened regime. You could see a breakup of the country.

The best-case scenario would be a united, democratic, free and prosperous Iran. But one thing I also wanted to mention, Maria, you know, there are countries that are pivot nations – that's what I call them. Cuba, Iran, China. If any of these countries become truly free, then that has a reverberating effect all around them.

It's not just good for that one nation. It provides security and it advances the interests of the United States if any one of those three countries becomes free.

Yeah, I'm not optimistic about China and by the way China has that ports deal, the agreement in Iran, so that's also making me question what happens next in Iran because of China's involvement there. But look, let's talk Greenland for a moment because the White House is set to meet with Danish officials tomorrow to discuss a potential acquisition of Greenland. The president says the deal is about national security, saying that the Arctic region lacks the proper defense to keep Russia and China out of the Western Hemisphere.

Watch this.

Greenland should make the deal, because Greenland does not want to see Russia or China take over. They don't go there. It's very far away from Greenland. And Greenland basically, their defense is two dog sleds. Do you know that? Do you know what their defense is? Two dog sleds.

In the meantime, you have Russian destroyers and submarines and China destroyers and submarines all over the place. We're not going to let that happen. And if it affects NATO, then it affects NATO. But, you know, they need us much more than we need them, I will tell you that right now.

Well, certain NATO countries have in fact spoken out. Britain, France, Germany reportedly pitching a joint mission to monitor and protect security interests in the region and de-escalate talks of a takeover. Mary, what do you think about this? Officials from Greenland and Denmark have pushed back against any deal with the U.S. How important is Greenland in your view for

the United States? It's incredibly important. I mean, presidents back to Eisenhower have wanted to purchase Greenland, just to give you a sense. We've been thinking about this region for a very long time, and it's not just because of the critical minerals or in the waterways, it's because there are strategic positions on Greenland that help us defend against ballistic missile attacks that are coming over the North Pole.

So that's why the United States used to have many, many bases on Greenland. It's down to one, and President Trump is right to, again, focus attention on it. I think a good outcome here would be to get the Europeans to help us put a NATO mission there, increase the number of U.S. bases, but also, you know, there are many economic things that we can do for Greenland to both help them and help us.

Back in Trump 1, we started a critical minerals initiative where we were going to help the Greenlanders map the resources that they had and then help them develop it. Certainly that would be of benefit to both of us.

Well, the president had that idea back then before the Chinese started bullying us about these rare earth minerals. Mary, real quick, your clients at Stevens, are these geopolitical issues becoming increasingly important for their landscape to allocate capital and invest?

Absolutely. I mean, we talk to three kinds of people. We talk to board directors, most of whom never think about these things, to CEOs, because even if you're domestically engaged, you're still exposed to the effects of what's happening in the world. And yes, we talked to the big investor pools.

Mary, it's great to have you this morning.

Great to be with you. Great to be with you.

Thanks so much. Mary Kissel here. Stay with us. We'll be right back.