The United States President Donald Trump holds a press conference on the war in Iran in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 6, 2026 in Washington DC.Imago/Zuma
Get your news from a source that’s not owned and controlled by oligarchs. Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily.
Trump threatened genocide against the people of Iran Tuesday morning, saying that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
The Truth Social post in full: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. 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? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!”
This warning comes as Trump’s latest deadline for Iran’s leadership to open the Strait of Hormuz expires on Tuesday night at 8pm Eastern Time and is a horrifying escalation of his threat over the weekend to commit war crimes by bombing Iranian civilian infrastructure, including power plants and desalination plants.
But the president clearly doesn’t care. In a Monday afternoon press conference, he told reporters that he was “not at all” concerned about his threats violating the Geneva convention’s bans on attacking resources essential for a population’s survival. The prohibitions bind all United Nations member states.
“I’m not worried about it,” Trump said in his dismissive Monday remarks. “You know the war crime? The war crime is allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
