Iran’s currency collapse and the wave of protests that followed are not merely a regional economic story — they are a potential tipping point for a regime that has long bled its people dry. As Steve Forbes argued, the total collapse of the rial has catalyzed uprisings that could finally sweep away the ayatollahs if the international community, especially the United States, seizes the moment.
The facts on the ground are brutal and unmistakable: the rial plunged to record lows in late December and early January, merchants shut their shops in Tehran’s bazaars, and the central bank governor resigned amid the chaos as inflation surged above forty percent. These economic realities ignited mass demonstrations beginning December 28, 2025, that quickly escalated into broader calls for political change and exposed the regime’s failure to care for its people.
Conservative patriots should welcome any development that weakens a genocidal, terror-sponsoring theocracy whose rulers prioritize missiles and meddling over bread and medicine for ordinary Iranians. Washington should use every moral and strategic tool to back the Iranian people’s yearning for freedom — from targeted sanctions on regime elites to covert measures that help protesters communicate and organize — while avoiding open-ended military entanglements. Steve Forbes’s blunt point that monetary collapse fuels revolutions is exactly the kind of hardheaded lesson our foreign policy ought to learn from and exploit intelligently.
At home this episode ought to be a wake-up call for President Trump and every American who cares about prosperity: a nation’s currency is not an abstract line item, it is a pillar of national strength. Weakening the dollar as a supposed quick fix for trade deficits invites inflation, domestic pain, and geopolitical instability — outcomes that will undercut American workers and hand leverage to adversaries. If conservatives want peace through strength and freedom abroad, we must insist on sound money at home; a strong, stable dollar protects U.S. power and gives dissidents everywhere the best chance of victory.
