Trump’s warning Tuesday that a “whole civilization will die tonight” was viewed by his most sympathetic supporters as a direct threat to Iran’s thuggish regime. That theory came from the fact it was tied to an 8 p.m. deadline, then 12 hours away, to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face catastrophic consequences.
“Look, he’s talking to [the regime] in the way he thinks he needs to talk to them,” Scott Jennings, the outnumbered CNN panelist, told a panel of upset Democrats.
That theory, which was floated by others, too, suggested Trump was speaking an aggressive language a regime that tortures and murders its own people would understand.
Other supporters, perhaps already frustrated over an Easter post with profanity, read the Tuesday post as threatening an attack on Iran’s civilian infrastructure as a possible strategy for turning the civilian population against their leadership.
Beyond giving him the benefit of the doubt, or simply guessing at a motive, another theory emerged: President Trump, our crazed commander in chief, was really going to nuke the Iranian people.
On Capitol Hill, Democrats were livid. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called the threat “genocidal,” and Sen. Patty Murray called it the “rantings of a bloodthirsty lunatic.”
Those comments were tied to an effort on Capitol Hill to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove President Trump with impeachment proceedings.
In the news media, the award for the most unhinged reaction went to MS Now host Lawrence O’Donnell. In a fiery monologue, O’Donnell went from comparing Trump to Adolf Hitler to warning not even Hitler ever made such a threat.
“No cruel king ever threatened that,” O’Donnell warned. “No mass murdering tyrant, anywhere in the world, ever said that or even thought it was possible.”
Nick Fondacaro, of the Media Research Center, told AFN he was surprised the liberal media moved the ball after constantly comparing Trump to Hitler since his first term.
“Trump has gone from being almost as bad as Hitler to Hitler 2.0, the reincarnation of Hitler, to he is now worse than Hitler,” Fondacaro observed.
By the end of the evening Tuesday, with the 8 p.m. deadline 1 ½ hours away, Iran’s leaders appeared to cave to Trump’s threat. Iran’s foreign minister and its state news agency reported the U.S. had agreed to stop its military attacks, spinning their own agreement to hold talks as a political and military win over the United States.
Back in the United States, the liberal news media and Democrats – which had warned of nuclear Armageddon earlier in the day – seemed to agree Iran had won a political victory over Trump. Their opinions shifted quickly to mock President Trump for a two-week ceasefire.
Many of their comments used a left-wing description for President Trump, T.A.C.O., which means “Trump always chickens out.”
On CNN, Sen. Chris Murphy accused President Trump of backing down to the Iranian regime. Citing a list of demands from Iran, he said it would be “cataclysmic for the world” if President Trump allows Iran to control the Strait of Hormuz.
Earlier in the day, however, Sen. Murphy called Trump’s threat a possible war crime if he was threatening to target civilian infrastructure.
On his Fox News show, Greg Gutfeld pointed out how Democrats had quickly pivoted.
“One minute Trump’s a homicide, nuke-slinging maniac. The next he’s Tim Walz deserting the fight,” Gutfeld, summarizing the quick change, told viewers.
