“A Whole Civilization Will Die”: Trump Makes Most Deranged Threat Yet

“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?” he continued. “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!”Trump has repeatedly escalated his threats against Iran since Sunday, demanding that the country’s leadership either reopen the Strait of Hormuz—a vital tradeway in the region that only closed because of Trump’s intervention—or face total annihilation, highlighting various possible strike targets such as Iran’s power plants and bridges. The president said this despite the fact that doing so would constitute a war crime.Targeting non-combatants such as civilians and civilian infrastructure is a blatant violation of International Humanitarian Law. Exterminating a “whole civilization” would break several components of the Geneva Conventions, which the U.S. played a foundational role in creating.Trump pledged on social media that Iran had the opportunity to act until Tuesday 8 p.m., but the president appears to have jumped his own timeline. By Tuesday morning, bombs were already raining on the nation’s railways.Iranian media responded just after 9 a.m. EST, announcing through diplomatic channels that talks with the U.S. had stalled in the wake of Trump’s explicit threats.Vice President JD Vance backed Trump’s response Tuesday morning, telling an assembly in Budapest that he hopes Iran makes the “right response,” highlighting America’s needs for free flowing oil.“They’ve got to know, we’ve got tools in our toolkit that we so far haven’t decided to use,” Vance said. “The president of the United States can decide to use them, and he will decide to use them if the Iranians don’t change their course of conduct.”It was not clear exactly which “tools,” capable of erasing an entire civilization, Vance was referring to.The flow of oil through the Strait of Hormuz was not an issue until Israel and the U.S. jointly attacked Iran in late February. In the weeks that followed, Iran sealed off the waterway, which funnels approximately one-fifth of all global crude oil shipments.The ramifications of closing the chokepoint have been felt around the world. In the U.S., the price per oil barrel has exploded due to the strait’s closure, pushing gas over 4 per gallon in most states (in some areas of California, gas has leapt past 7 a gallon). Diesel shot up by 20 cents over the last week alone.Trump has waffled on the strait’s significance to American markets. Last week, the president rapidly cycled through his opinions on the transit point, claiming in succession that he didn’t care if the strait remained closed, and that he needed it reopened.The pressure to reopen the strait likely comes from his own party, which has become increasingly anxious over the economic fallout of the war. Republicans—particularly in vulnerable districts—have stressed that the war could wreak havoc on their election results come November.That alone has amped up enough pressure on the White House to seek a near-immediate conclusion to the war, though it does not appear that Trump will have it. The U.S. military, meanwhile, is already bolstering itself for another grinding Middle East conflict: last month, Politico reported that military strategists in U.S. Central Command requested the Pentagon supply support for their operations in Iran through at least September.This story has been updated.