President Donald Trump's Friday message warning the Iranians that he was prepared to intervene should the Islamic Republic kill civilian protesters drew flak from the GOP's libertarian wing.

In a Truth Social post, Trump stated that the United States was "locked and loaded and ready to go" in the event that the government turned violent against domestic demonstrators.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., one of the House GOP's most prominent dissidents, responded by asserting "[w]e have problems at home and shouldn’t be wasting military resources on another country’s internal affairs."

He further insisted that Trump would need congressional authorization to launch any strikes on Iran and opined that Trump's threat was more about geopolitics and economic leverage than any human rights issue.

Ben Whedon is the Chief Political Correspondent at Just the News. Follow him on X.