TEHRAN- A new analysis published by the Libertarian Institute alleges that the United States, under President Donald Trump, deliberately engineered an economic meltdown in Iran as part of a broader strategy to incite civil unrest and weaken the country ahead of a joint US-Israeli military operation.

Drawing from congressional testimony and presidential statements, the report claims that the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure campaign” was not merely about sanctions, but an active plot to drive Iranians into the streets. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is quoted as admitting before Congress that the US instigated an economic war against Iran. “What we have done at Treasury is created a dollar shortage in the country,” Bessent testified. “It came to a swift and, I would say, grand culmination in December, when one of the largest banks in Iran went under. The central bank had to print money. The Iranian currency went into free fall. Inflation exploded, and hence we have seen the Iranian people out on the street.”

The report argues that economic warfare was only part of the plan. President Trump himself confessed to Fox News, “We sent guns to the protesters, a lot of them.” The article, written by Charles Goyette, states that this foreign meddling was designed to provoke a government crackdown, leading to untold loss of life.

Furthermore, the analysis details active Israeli involvement in destabilizing Iran. In an X post at the height of the disturbances, former CIA head and Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote: “Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets. Also, to every Mossad agent walking beside them.” Separately, an Israeli government minister, Amichai Eliyahu, stated, “I can assure you that our people are working there right now” to destabilize the regime.

The report draws a historical parallel to the 1953 CIA-orchestrated coup that installed the Shah of Iran. “An engineered economic collapse. Guns, lots of them. Foreign agents in the streets. Things that are not designed to make the world more peaceful. They are designed instead to create war and poverty, destruction and death,” Goyette writes.

The analysis also criticizes President Trump’s susceptibility to Israeli tactics, claiming he was deceived into approving the February war against Iran based on “farcical” intelligence. It quotes CIA Director John Ratcliffe, who reportedly called Netanyahu’s assumptions for a quick victory “farcical,” and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who dismissed them as “bullshit.” However, Trump allegedly “bought it,” transforming an Israeli plan into a US-led operation.

The report concludes by questioning whether Americans want their nation’s “every act … clouded in suspicion,” suggesting that such “machinations of overweening arrogance” will ultimately backfire and isolate the United States.