“This murderous regime also recently killed 45,000 of their own people who were protesting in Iran.”

The 45,000 figure is unverified and roughly six times the documented death toll. The Associated Press, fact-checking Trump's April 1, 2026 address, reported that the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA), which has accurately tracked multiple rounds of Iranian unrest, confirmed just over 7,000 deaths in the protests that peaked in January 2026. As the AP flatly stated, "a death toll that high has not been verified." Trump's own number keeps shifting, which underscores that he is not citing a real count. In earlier statements he claimed at least 32,000 protesters were killed, and in his State of the Union he said 42,000, figures the AP noted sit "at the far end of estimates offered by activists," for which he "offered no evidence." Iran's government, which routinely minimizes such tolls, put the number at 3,117 on January 21, 2026.

The Iranian regime's crackdown was unquestionably brutal. HRANA documented more than 53,000 arrests and warned that thousands more deaths may have occurred but could not be confirmed because Iran's internet and communication blackouts made verification extremely difficult. The atrocity is real, and some estimates run far above HRANA's confirmed count: two senior Iranian Health Ministry officials told TIME that as many as 30,000 people could have been killed on January 8 and 9 alone, a figure TIME could not verify. What Trump did was cite a precise figure of 45,000 that is unverified and above every documented count, using it to justify U.S. military strikes on Iran. "A death toll that high has not been verified. The U.S.-based group Human Rights Activists News Agency... said it confirmed the deaths of just over 7,000 people." — Associated Press fact check, April 1, 2026