Democrats outraged at Trump’s Iran post: ‘A threat to commit a war crime’ | Donald Trump

Donald Trump threatened Tuesday morning to wipe out the entirety of Iranian civilization if the country’s government ignores his 8 p.m. ET deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

The president’s own remarks, publicly released and tied to a specific deadline and set of demands, provide unusually direct evidence of intent to violate international law, and were greeted with shock and dismay by Democrats and a growing number of prominent conservatives.

“An entire civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back,” Trump posted on Truth Social about this country of more than 90 million people. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”

“He is an extremely sick person,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said, accusing Republicans of encouraging the president to plunge the United States into a “gratuitous war of choice.”

In his message, Trump went on to refer to “complete and total regime change” and signed “God bless the great people of Iran,” making language that suggested the destruction of the state and the blessing of its people were, in his view, compatible.

“47 years of extortion, corruption and death will finally come to an end,” he wrote, referring to the country’s takeover by the Islamic regime in 1979. “Tonight we will experience one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world. »

Neither the United States nor Iran is a member of the International Criminal Court, meaning no formal ICC jurisdiction applies. The most immediate legal framework is the Geneva Conventions of 1949, which both countries have ratified. Article 33 of the Fourth Convention explicitly prohibits collective punishment against a civilian population. Article 54 of Additional Protocol I – the fundamental principles of which are binding as customary international law even on states, such as the United States and Iran, which have never ratified it – prohibits attacks on infrastructure essential to the survival of civilians, with only a narrow exception for objects used exclusively to support enemy armed forces.

The United States has itself recognized this customary obligation, although adoption of this position occurred under the Biden administration in 2024. In a formal submission to the UN, Washington said it considers the core protections of Additional Protocol I to be legally binding, even without ratification.

Trump’s latest threat against the entirety of Iranian civilization “shocks the conscience,” House Democratic leaders said in a joint statement, calling for a “decisive response from Congress.”

“The House must return to session immediately and vote to end this reckless war in the Middle East before Donald Trump plunges our country into World War III,” Reps. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Katherine Clark of Massachusetts and Pete Aguilar of California said in their statement. Members are not expected to return to Washington until next week.

Questions about the president’s mental state have mounted since Trump’s expletive-laden message on Easter Sunday, with Democrats and critics calling him “unhinged” and “crazy.”

Sen. Patty Murray called Trump’s message the “ramblings of a bloodthirsty madman,” while Sen. Chris Coons said, “This is a threat to commit a war crime.”

Rep. Joaquín Castro said the threat “suggests that he is considering using a nuclear weapon or that he wants to make Iran believe that he would.” Several Democrats said it was time to invoke the 25th Amendment against Trump, a call to remove him from office and replace him with the next presidential candidate.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a former House speaker, said Trump’s “instability is clearer and more dangerous than ever.”

“If the Cabinet is unwilling to invoke the 25th Amendment and restore sanity, Republicans must reconvene Congress to end this war,” she said in a statement.

Jason Carter, grandson of the late Jimmy Carter, whose presidency was defined by the 1970 Iranian revolution and the 444-day hostage crisis that followed, condemned Trump’s remarks as “anti-American” and “anti-Christian.”

“If my grandfather were here, he would challenge all Americans — Democratic-Republicans and especially Christians who worship the Prince of Peace — to stand up and say enough is enough,” Carter, who serves as chairman of the Carter Center board, said in a video statement. “The Islamist government of Iran has been our enemy, including an enemy of my family, but the Iranian people have never been our enemy. This country must be better than the unbridled and dangerous rhetoric of Donald Trump.”

It’s not just about Democrats; Trump’s war in the Middle East has fractured the American right, driving a deep divide between traditional hawkish conservatives who have long called for military action against Iran and the president’s anti-interventionist “America First” loyalists.

Responding to Trump’s message Tuesday, former U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who recently split with the president in part over what she says was his abandonment of America First political principles, called for invoking the “25TH AMENDMENT!!!” »

“Not a single bomb was dropped on America,” she wrote. “We can’t kill an entire civilization. That’s evil and madness.”

Texas Republican Rep. Nathaniel Moran said in a social media post that he supported the president’s military intervention in Iran but disagreed with his threat to destroy “an entire civilization.” “This is not who we are and it is not consistent with the principles that have long guided America,” Moran said.

Trump’s post on Truth Social came the morning after a chaotic White House press conference in which Trump voiced his threats to reporters. “The whole country could be destroyed in one night,” he told reporters Monday, “and that night could be tomorrow night.”

When a reporter pointed out that deliberate attacks on civilian infrastructure violated the Geneva conventions, Trump did not dispute the point. “I hope I don’t have to do that,” he said, then pivoted: “They’ve been negotiating with these people for forty-seven years. They’re excellent negotiators, and that’s because they won’t have a nuclear weapon.” When asked if the war was coming to an end or escalating, he simply replied: “I can’t tell you. » Asked about a cease-fire, he replied: “I cannot talk about a cease-fire.”

He reiterated Tuesday’s 8 p.m. ET deadline for Iran to reopen the strait or face strikes on energy infrastructure and bridges. The Iranian Navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards, for its part, declared on Monday that the Strait of Hormuz “will never return to its previous state” for the United States and its allies.

Trump also claimed, without providing evidence, that U.S. intelligence had intercepted communications from Iranian civilians near active bombing sites, urging U.S. forces to continue. “Please keep bombing,” he said, citing the allegations of interceptions. He dismissed fears that the destruction of power and water infrastructure would harm ordinary Iranians, insisting they would happily accept such losses for a chance at regime change.

The military campaign is followed by Trump’s $1.5 trillion Pentagon budget request last week alongside sweeping cuts to domestic programs.

The rhetorical escalation of recent days is also accompanied by a set of contradictions. Trump has said in recent weeks that the United States has no strategic need for the Strait of Hormuz; a few days later, he made its reopening the central condition of his ultimatum to Tehran. He claimed total domination of Iranian airspace even as a US fighter jet was shot down over the country.

He said the war was won, but now threatens to enter its most destructive phase.