A CNN correspondent gave a report from Tehran that effectively served as a puff piece for the despotic Iranian regime, omitting the fact that the murderous government had killed thousands of protesters while warning of the Iranian regime’s defiant message to the Trump administration.
“Iran’s leadership is sending a strong and very defiant message to the United States, and specifically, of course, to the Trump administration,” CNN International Correspondent Frederik Pleitgen said. “You could see it here on this gigantic poster on Revolution Square in central Tehran. The message on this massive poster is, ‘If you sow the wind you will reap the whirlwind,’ obviously meaning if the United States attacks Iran, Iran will retaliate in a massive way, which could, of course, lead to a major military confrontation between the United States and Iran.”
The Iranian Islamic regime has a history of braggadocio; in 2020, after a U.S. strike killed terror master Qasem Soleimani, Iran vowed “harsh revenge” and the expulsion of all U.S. forces from the Middle East. In 2024, after an Israeli airstrike destroyed a building in Damascus used by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard, Iran threatened an “unprecedented” response and launched 300 drones and missiles; 99% were intercepted. Iran immediately declared the matter “concluded.” In 2025, after pledging “all-out total war” that would “end the Zionist regime,” barrages were largely neutralized by superior Israeli technology. Retaliation against the U.S. for its bombing of Iran’s nuclear facilities was limited to a symbolic strike on a base in Qatar to save face.
The regime often “talks big” for its proxies (Hezbollah, Houthis, militias in Iraq). However, when these proxies face existential threats — such as the fall of the Assad regime in Syria or the degradation of Hezbollah in 2024-2025 — Tehran has historically been unwilling to enter a direct, high-stakes war to save them.
Pleitgen made sure to feature Iranians who propagandized on behalf of the Iranian regime, saying, “And that’s also something that’s on the minds of many of the people that we’ve been speaking to here as well.” One woman derisively laughed and told him, “I’m not sure what to say; I think they’re all collaborating with one another against the interest of the Iranian people.” A man echoed, “I don’t think Trump dares to attack. He’s more bluffing.”
Pleitgen continued his puffery thus: “All this comes, of course, as President Trump weighs his options on what to do next. The U.S. has pulled together a substantial military force here in this region but the Iranians also say they’ve replenished their stockpiles of ballistic missiles and are ready to hit back hard any time.”
He referred to the protests in which the regime murdered possibly tens of thousands of protesters without detailing the massive number of dead: “Now, of course, all this comes in the wake of those large protests that happened here in Iran in the early part of January.”
Iran’s leadership is sending a defiant warning to the United States as tensions soar. @fpleitgenCNN reports from inside Iran, and speaks to residents on the streets of the capital Tehran. pic.twitter.com/iXNlRQCLzc
— CNN International PR (@cnnipr) January 27, 2026
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