{"id":206835,"date":"2026-04-07T17:19:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-says-a-whole-civilization-will-die-tonight-as-iran-hormuz-deadline-looms-usa-today\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T17:19:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T17:19:21","slug":"trump-says-a-whole-civilization-will-die-tonight-as-iran-hormuz-deadline-looms-usa-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/trump-says-a-whole-civilization-will-die-tonight-as-iran-hormuz-deadline-looms-usa-today\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump says a 'whole civilization will die tonight' as Iran Hormuz deadline looms – USA Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

President\u00a0Donald Trump<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday warned Iran\u2019s entire civilization will be wiped out if Tehran does not make a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, ramping up pressure on the Middle Eastern country to capitulate to U.S. demands.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don\u2019t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump\u00a0wrote on social media<\/a>. The president\u2019s stark warning comes hours ahead of an 8 p.m. ET deadline for Iran to make a deal or face broad attacks targeting country’s power plants and bridges.
If carried out, the strikes would mark a major escalation in the six-week conflict. Experts warn the attacks on civilian infrastructure could be\u00a0war crimes<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0could turn<\/a>\u00a0Iranian civilians against the United States.
Vice President JD Vance<\/a>, speaking from Hungary on Tuesday, said negotiations are ongoing and that he is \u201cconfident\u201d Iran will respond to U.S. demands by Trump\u2019s deadline. On Monday, Iran rejected a ceasefire proposal organized by intermediaries and issued its own counterproposal that calls for a complete end to the war, among other demands.
American and Israeli forces on Tuesday carried out airstrikes across Iran. The U.S. struck military targets on Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal, multiple outlets reported. Israel, meanwhile, launched attacks on eight bridges and multiple railroads across Iran, according to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu<\/a> and the Israeli military.
Christopher Cann
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday said he hopes there will be a positive breakthrough in negotiations with Iran as the clock winds down on President Trump’s threat to bombard the country’s infrastructure.
“Hope we have more news later today on that,” Rubio said when asked if he expects Iran to come to the table.
Rubio\u2019s comments were made ahead of his meeting with New Zealand\u2019s foreign minister. He did not respond to a question about what Trump meant by his threat in which he said a “whole civilization will die tonight.”
Christopher Cann
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday said the Israeli military struck bridges and railroads in Iran, ahead of President Donald Trump’s deadline to strike Iranian infrastructure.
“These actions that I approved alongside the defense minister are not meant to attack the Iranian people,” Netanyahu said in a video address. “On the contrary, they were meant to weaken and crush the horrifying regime oppressing them for 47 years.”
Netanyahu said the strikes were necessary to degrade the Revolutionary Guard, which he accused of using bridges and trains to transfer weapons materials. Experts have said intentionally targeting civilian infrastructure could constitute war crimes.
In a statement, the Israeli military said it struck eight bridges in Iran<\/a>, including several in the cities of Tehran, Karaj, Tabriz, Kashan and Qom.
Zac Anderson
Trump’s threats to dramatically escalate the U.S. military conflict in Iran are drawing strong pushback from some on the right<\/a>, with former GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene suggesting the president should be removed from office.
“25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness,” Greene, once a close Trump ally who has become an outspoken critic, wrote on social media in response to a post by Trump warning that “A whole civilization will die tonight.”
The 25th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution empowers the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet to declare the president is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office” and elevate the vice president to the job.
Republican Sen. Ron Johnson said he hopes Trump’s threat in an April 5 social media post to target Iran’s bridges and power plants “really is bluster.”
\u201cI do not want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure. I do not want to see that,” Johnson said.
Prominent conservative commentator Tucker Carlson called the April 5 post is “vile” on “every level.”
“It begins with a promise to use the U.S. military, our military, to destroy civilian infrastructure in another country,” Carlson\u00a0said April 6<\/a>\u00a0on The Tucker Carlson Show. “Which is to say to commit a war crime, a moral crime, against the people of the country.”
Christopher Cann
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called President Trump “an extremely sick person” in a social media post responding to Trump’s threat to wipe out Iran’s entire civilization.
“Each Republican who refuses to join us in voting against this wanton war of choice owns every consequence of whatever the hell this is,” Schumer said in a post on X<\/a>.
Hours earlier, Trump stepped up his threats on Iran, writing in a social media post<\/a>: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don\u2019t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
Cybele Mayes-Osterman
The U.S. embassy in Manama, the capital of Bahrain, warned all government employees and Americans across the Middle Eastern country to shelter in place.
“To the extent possible, remain in a secure structure, and stay away from windows,” the embassy warned in an April 7 security alert.
“Iran and its aligned terrorist militias may intend to target American universities in Bahrain.\u00a0 Iran has specifically threatened American universities across the Middle East.”
U.S. embassies have warned in recent days that Iran may target American universities campuses in Iraq<\/a>, Kuwait<\/a>, Saudi Arabia<\/a> and other U.S.-allied countries in the region.
Christopher Cann
President Donald Trump said he will not budge on his threat to carry out broad attacks on Iranian infrastructure if his Tuesday deadline is not met.
“8 p.m. is happening,” Trump told Fox News host Bret Baier on Tuesday<\/a>, adding that if no momentum builds toward a deal “there is going to be an attack like they have not seen.”
Trump told the outlet that could change if negotiations move forward and there is something “concrete,” but said he “didn’t want to put odds on it.”
Kim Hjelmgaard
An Iranian official issued a video message that was shown on state TV and later posted on an official government social media account<\/a> calling on “all young people, athletes, artists, students and university students and their professors\u201d to form human chains around Iran’s power plants.
The official in question, Alireza Rahimi \u2212 Iran\u2019s deputy minister of youth and sports \u2212 made the comments shortly before President Donald Trump warned Iran’s leaders that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if the nation fails to agree a deal aimed at ending the war.
Iranians have formed human chains in the past around nuclear sites at times of heightened tensions with the West. Trump has threatened to strike Iran’s civilian power plants and other public infrastructure. Doing so could amount to a war crime under international legal standards. Trump has brushed off those concerns.
Christopher Cann
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said “more than 14 million proud Iranians have so far registered to sacrifice their lives to defend Iran.”
“I too have been, am, and will remain devoted to giving my life for Iran,” he in a post on X<\/a>.
The comments from Pezeshkian, who has been in power since 2024, come as President Donald Trump vowed that a “whole civilization will die tonight” if Iran does not make a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Christopher Cann
Vice President JD Vance said while there are delays in transmitting messages between negotiators, he is “confident” Tehran will respond to the demands of the United States by President Donald Trump’s Tuesday night deadline.
“We feel confident that we\u2019re going to get a response, whether it\u2019s positive or negative,” he said while speaking in Budapest. “I hope they make the right response.”
\u201cThe ball is in the Iranian\u2019s court,” Vance added.
Francesca Chambers
Vance said at his news conference that Iran faces a choice and can go down one of two pathways after the conflict.
The first option is for Iran to be a “normal country” that does not fund terrorism. The second one pathway is one in which its leaders “don’t come to the table” and Tehran’s economic situation further deteriorates.
“The nature of the conclusion is ultimately up to the Iranians,” Vance said of the negotiations that are underway. “Militarily, it frankly doesn’t matter one way or the other to us. It’s fundamentally a question of what does this look like afterwards,” he added.
Christopher Cann
The U.S. carried out multiple strikes on the island early Tuesday morning, according to Reuters<\/a> and the Wall Street Journal<\/a>, citing officials. American forces in March carried out strikes on the island where Iran’s main oil export terminal is located.
When asked about newly reported strikes on Kharg Island, Vice President JD Vance said the action does not represent a shift in strategy.
“We were going to strike some military targets on\u00a0Kharg\u00a0Island, and I believe we have done so,” Vance while speaking in Budapest on Tuesday. “I don\u2019t think the news on Kharg Island represents a change in strategy or represents any change from the president of the United States.”
Christopher Cann
Vice President JD Vance expressed hope that a deal can be reached between the U.S. and Iran before President Donald Trump’s 8 p.m. deadline.
\u201cI hope that they\u2019re smart,” Vance said, speaking during a visit to Budapest. “The president has set a deadline for about 12 hours from now. We\u2019re going to find out. But there\u2019s going to be a lot of negotiation between now and then, and I am hopeful that it gets to a good resolution.\u201d
Vance said the U.S. has “largely accomplished” its military objectives and that “very shortly this war is going to conclude.”
Andrea Riquier
Financial markets were choppy ahead of Trump\u2019s 8 PM ET deadline.
Oil bounced, with a barrel of Brent crude trading near $110 just before 9 AM ET, after being as low as $107 overnight.
Stocks looked set to open lower, and government bonds also sold off. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note was more than 2 basis points higher. Bond yields rise when prices fall, and investors have been selling bonds in anticipation of higher inflation caused by the war.
The price of gasoline has popped, standing at $4.139 a gallon nationally at last check.
Francesca Chambers
Trump issued a stark warning to Iran on Tuesday morning, hours before his deadline for the country’s leaders to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, that a wave of expected U.S. military attacks on critical infrastructure would be debilitating and potentially unrecoverable for the nation.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don\u2019t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote in a April 7<\/a> social media post.
The president left the door open to a possible eleventh-hour deal with Iran to avoid an escalation, saying in his post that a group of officials the U.S. says it has been negotiating with privately are “smarter” and “less radicalized” than their predecessors.
“[M]aybe 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,” he wrote.
Michael Loria
A press briefing on Iran war operations has reportedly been scrapped ahead of a threatened major escalation in the conflict.\u00a0
The briefing was expected to happen at 8 a.m. at the Pentagon, 12 hours ahead of Trump\u2019s deadline for strikes on Iranian infrastructure. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were expected to lead the briefing.
Journalists at multiple outlets, including\u00a0Reuters<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0NewsNation<\/a>, reported on the cancellation.
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment on why officials scrapped the briefing.
Michael Loria
Inflation will rise and economic growth across the world will slow as a result of the war with Iran, the\u00a0leader of the International Monetary Fund<\/a>\u00a0told Reuters Monday.
The warning from the head of the global financial organization comes as Iran has leveraged its ability to block oil shipments through the\u00a0Strait of Hormuz<\/a>\u00a0to disrupt global fuel supplies. Global oil supply has shrunk by 13%, according to the IMF.\u00a0
Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the IMF, told Reuters that the fund expects to lower its global economic growth projections down from 3.3% in 2026 and 3.2% in 2027.\u00a0
“All roads now lead to higher prices and slower growth,” said Georgieva. The longer the war lasts, the worse the fund expects projections could become, according to the IMF.
Michael Loria
Trump has called his ultimatum to Iran the final chance to come to the negotiating table and make a deal to end the war. But the president\u2019s threats come after a string of earlier deadlines that he pushed back. Here’s a look:<\/p>\n

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President\u00a0Donald Trump\u00a0on Tuesday warned Iran\u2019s entire civilization will be wiped out if Tehran does not make a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, ramping up pressure on the Middle Eastern country to capitulate to U.S. demands.“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don\u2019t want that to happen, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":206836,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-206835","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}