I suspect that they were trying to either embarass the U.S. or more likely, get one or more of the “demonstrators” killed. With the objective to aid Iran in taking attention off of the regime’s massive repression and economic failures.
They were also hoping that our media would eviscerate Trump and create a gigantic failure over his head. Their timing was off as the major Trump haters of journalism (and the DNC who writes their talking points) were off for the holiday so the response from the “Orange man bad” crowd was muddled at best.
I honestly disagree with this, from the mullahs’ perspective the U.S., to include all factions, is the enemy. Mr. Kerrey and Mr. Obama may have been more gullible and easier to manipulate, but they want embarrass the U.S., not Mr. Trump.
Our domestic squabbles only matter in that they may or may not provide a tactical opportunity, such as when they waited until after Reagan’s inauguration to release the Hostages in 1981. Sticking it to Mr Carter was icing on the cake, not a goal in itself. This event was primarily an attempt to mitigate the impact of the U.S. retaliatory attacks on Iranian proxies a few days ago.