The ongoing mass protests in Iran have pushed the country into uncharted territory, presenting President Donald Trump with difficult choices as violence escalates and the future role of Iran's powerful military apparatus remains uncertain, KT McFarland, deputy national security adviser in Trump's first term, said Tuesday.
McFarland told Newsmax's "Rob Schmitt Tonight" that Trump has been briefed on options as millions of Iranians protest the Islamic regime amid reports of hundreds of deaths.
"So what they presented him with is a series of options," McFarland said. "And that's usually like small, medium, and large options."
She said lesser steps could include cyber operations or helping protesters communicate, while the most extreme option would be regime change by force.
"The extreme option would be toppling the regime, getting rid of the mullahs, maybe bombing a lot of military installations," she said.
"I don't think Trump wants either one of those."
Instead, McFarland said, Trump is likely to pursue a middle course aimed at stopping the bloodshed without triggering a prolonged conflict or occupation.
"He knows that he doesn't want to 'I break it, I own it' with Iran," she said.
McFarland said Iran's future hinges less on Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei than on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which wields vast military and economic power.
"The big player in all this is not even the ayatollah, but IRGC — the Revolutionary Guard, the military. And they're not just like an armed force," she said.
"They're the entire military industrial complex of Iran. Where are they in all of this?"
She said the central question is whether the IRGC would continue backing the clerical leadership or seek to preserve its own power by distancing itself from the regime.
"Are they willing to overthrow the ayatollah? Who would take charge?" McFarland asked.
McFarland said protests have flared in Iran for decades but that the current unrest is different because of the scale of economic collapse and the breadth of public participation.
"The protests are all over the country. And they're the rich, the poor, the educated," she said.
"So it's the entire country is rising up."
Although some foreign leaders have predicted the regime's imminent collapse, McFarland cautioned against assuming a rapid transition to democracy.
"I just think there's so many more pieces here that we're not seeing. Do not expect President Trump to do the obvious thing or to do the knee-jerk thing," she said.
"He's playing five steps ahead of everybody else. And so I really think that it's not as simple as people are taking to the streets, the ayatollahs are gone, somehow democracy breaks out."
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