Cruz Urges Trump to Arm Kurds and Iranian Protesters to Collapse the Regime
Senator tells NBC's Meet the Press it is not fair to expect protesters to face machine guns with rocks, declaring, "I don't care that Erdogan doesn't like it," as the US strikes Iran's Larak Island the following day
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - US Senator Ted Cruz called on President Donald Trump to arm Iranian protesters and Kurdish forces as a strategy for collapsing the Islamic Republic from within, appearing on NBC's Meet the Press on Sunday, August 30, 2026, and declaring unequivocally that the long-term objective should be regime collapse and that the Iranian people rather than American soldiers should be the instrument of achieving it.
"What I've been urging is for President Trump and the Trump administration to arm the protesters, the people of Iran, arm the Kurds and let the protesters remove this regime from power," Cruz told host Kristen Welker. "Not American boots on the ground, but the Iranian people."
Cruz grounded the proposal in what he described as a fundamental unfairness in the current situation. "Frankly, Kristen, it's not fair to expect some Iranian protester standing there with a rock to stand up against soldiers with machine guns," he said. "I believe if we arm the protesters, particularly the Kurds, who had a long history of being effective fighters, let the protesters remove this regime from power, not American boots on the ground."
On the same Meet the Press appearance, Cruz backed Trump's declaration of "mission accomplished" in Iran, saying he agreed "unequivocally" that the president's military objectives had been achieved, including eliminating Iran's military capabilities and nearly destroying its supply and manufacturing infrastructure for ballistic missiles.
Cruz also addressed the economic dimension of the conflict directly. "Right now, with the blockade that we are holding on Iran, Iran is facing $500 million a day of economic cost. That is an enormous cost that is ratcheting up. The economy is in free fall," he said, adding that he would like to see the longer-term objective be regime collapse.
On the question of Turkish objections to arming the Kurds, Cruz was dismissive. As Breitbart confirmed from a separate Fox News appearance on August 8, 2026, Cruz had previously stated: "The public reporting was that that idea was killed because Erdogan in Turkey didn't like it. Well, look, at the end of the day, I don't care that Erdogan in Turkey doesn't like it. It is in our interest not to have a theocratic lunatic leading Iran." His Meet the Press remarks doubled down on that position.
The senator's call to arm the Kurds carries direct and significant implications for the Kurdistan Region and for Iranian Kurdish opposition groups operating along the Iraq-Iran border, including the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran and Komala, which have maintained armed presences in the border areas throughout the conflict. The Kurdistan Region Government has consistently maintained a policy of strict neutrality throughout the six-month war, a posture praised by Turkish President Erdogan and exploited by Washington itself, as Axios revealed in its report on Kurdistan Region President Nechirvan Barzani's secret role as a backchannel to IRGC Commander Vahidi in May 2026.
Cruz's Meet the Press appearance came one day before the United States launched fresh strikes against IRGC forces on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday prompting Iranian retaliatory strikes on US bases in the region and a sweeping Iranian Foreign Ministry warning that all cooperating parties will share responsibility for the consequences of American aggression.