U.S. Navy’s USS Abraham Lincoln has been repositioned to the Persian Gulf amid escalating street protests in Iran. Former National Security Council official Nate Swanson, writing for the Atlantic Council, outlines four strategic options that former President Donald Trump could pursue: 1) symbolic strikes on conventional military or missile sites; 2) kinetic or cyber attacks on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps or Basij militia; 3) targeting Iran’s petroleum export infrastructure; and 4) the most drastic-removing Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Swanson cautions that any external intervention would be a double‑edged sword, noting historical precedents where U.S. backing of uprisings failed to prevent mass reprisals. He stresses that any post‑attack transition would have to be led by Iranians, with no U.S. ground forces involved. The presence of the carrier strike group serves both a defensive posture for U.S. allies and a psychological deterrent to Tehran, which has shown a preference for calibrated responses to foreign attacks.

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