Trump vows ‘support’ for Iran protestors, weighs sanctions

President Donald Trump pledged to help Iranians “take back ” their government Wednesday, as his White House weighed new sanctions against elements of the regime involved in a violent crackdown against protestors.

“Such respect for the people of Iran as they try to take back their corrupt government . You will see great support from the United States at the appropriate time !” Trump tweeted Wednesday.

The mercurial president offered no specifics , but a senior administration official said that the White House was “looking across the board ” at sanction authorities allowing Trump to target organizations or individuals involved in human rights violations , censorship or preventing free assembly .

“That requires information , but there is a lot of information out there, so we intend to start assembling that and see what we can do , ” the official said , speaking on condition of anonymity .

The United States will “use all the information sources at our disposal to be able to get actionable information about who is doing the crackdown , who is violating human rights, who is using violence against protesters and to feed that in to our sanctions designation machinery , ” the official said .

Trump has sought repeatedly to ramp up pressure the Iranian regime, which has struggled to contain a week of protests across the country.