Trump threatens ‘whole civilization will die tonight’ ahead of Iran deadline

( Yahoo )

President Donald Trump threatened the death of an entire civilization in a Tuesday morning post on Truth Social, the latest violent warning for the Iranian regime ahead of an 8 p.m. deadline for reopening the Strait of Hormuz.

Tuesday night may well be “one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World,” he wrote.

"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he wrote. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?”

The president’s increasingly dire warnings come after he has suggested strikes would hit bridges, desalination plants and energy targets — which could include civilian infrastructure that, if attacked deliberately, could constitute a war crime. Pentagon war planners are revising a list of energy sites, POLITICO previously reported, strikes can target to include ones that provide fuel for civilians and the military as a likely workaround to avoid war crime accusations.

Iran effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz — a critical waterway for the transit of 20 percent of the world’s oil — soon after the U.S. began to strike the country in a joint operation with Israel in February.

The president is now conditioning an end to the war on the reopening of the strait. “Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!” he wrote last week on social media.

Trump has also skewered U.S. allies — including NATO — for balking at his calls to help reopen the strait. But he’s trained the bulk of his threats at Tehran.

“We have a plan because of the power of our military where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding, and never to be used again,” Trump said on Monday.

Also on Monday, the president told reporters that negotiations between U.S. and Iranian interlocutors were ongoing “in good faith.” Reopening the strait, he said, is a “very big priority.”

Meanwhile, the U.S. struck dozens of military targets on Iran’s Kharg Island overnight — including bunkers, radars and ammunition storage sites — while avoiding oil infrastructure, according to Vice President JD Vance and a U.S. official who was granted anonymity to provide additional details.

Vance told reporters in Hungary on Tuesday that the strikes did not represent a change in strategy for the U.S. because they were focusing exclusively on military targets.

“The president's deadline … has been followed by us and everybody else,” he said. “And he said very clearly, we're not going to strike energy and infrastructure targets until the Iranians either make a proposal that we can get behind or don't make a proposal. But he's given them until Tuesday, at eight o'clock.”

Global oil prices have skyrocketed in the wake of the Strait’s closure. Domestically, the price of gas has rocketed up ahead of the midterm elections, which could spell disaster for the GOP.

Trump, meanwhile, has developed a penchant for talking about the conflict in a variety of settings — including, in one instance, in front of a costumed bunny at the annual White House Easter egg roll on Monday.

“They’re capable fighters, they’re very tough people,” he told an audience of parents and children. “And there are others like that. You don’t mind when the enemy is weak, but that enemy is strong. Not so strong like they were about a month ago — I can tell you, in fact, right now they are not too strong at all in my opinion. But we’re soon going to find out, aren’t we?”