President Donald Trump sharply increased his threats against Iran on Tuesday, warning that “an entire civilization will perish tonight” unless the country’s leaders strike a deal that includes reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
The threat came after U.S. forces attacked military targets on Iran’s main island, Kharg, overnight. oil export A White House official confirmed this to CNBC.
“An entire civilization will perish tonight and never return. I don’t want it to happen, but it probably will,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday morning.
“But now that there is a complete and total regime change, and a different, wiser, less radicalized way of thinking prevails, maybe something revolutionary and wonderful will happen, who knows?” he wrote.
“Tonight we will learn one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on April 6, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong | Getty Images
Since the United States and Israel began war in late February, Iran has blocked most oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz. The shutdown caused a historic oil supply shock, rapidly increasing global energy prices.
President Trump boasted that Iran’s military had been “destroyed,” but acknowledged that it still controls shipping traffic through the strait and wields significant influence.
In a bellicose social media post on Easter Sunday, he threatened to destroy Iranian bridges and power plants by Tuesday night and called on Iran to “open the strait, you crazy bastard, or you’ll live in hell.”
He then set the deadline for Tuesday at 8pm ET.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Trump’s latest post.
At a White House press briefing on Monday, President Trump said that for Iran to meet that deadline, it would have to agree to “an agreement that I would accept,” part of which would require free flow of oil and everything else. President Trump has criticized talk of Iran imposing tolls on the strait and has expressed interest in the United States imposing its own tolls instead.
The United States, Iran and regional mediators are reportedly discussing a 45-day cease-fire as a last resort to avoid triggering President Trump’s impending deadline.
However, a White House official told CNBC on Monday morning that President Trump does not support that idea and that Iran explicitly rejects a temporary ceasefire and instead seeks a deal to permanently end the war.
Asked about the proposal, President Trump told reporters at the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday: “I’m the only one setting up a ceasefire.”
Vice President J.D. Vance said Tuesday morning in Hungary that the U.S. attack on The Hague Island is consistent with President Trump’s military strategy and the impending deadline against Iran.
“The deadline is 8 o’clock,” Vance said in Budapest, where he was supporting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s re-election bid.
“What Iran is trying to do is cause as much economic pain as possible to the world because it has been defeated militarily. The president of the United States is someone who recognizes the influence.”
President Trump claimed that he wanted the United States to continue military operations even if it put the Iranian people at risk because they had lived in a “violent and frightening world” under a repressive regime.
“They are willing to suffer to gain freedom,” he said at a press conference on Monday. “There were a lot of interceptions saying, ‘Keep bombing.’ Bombs being dropped near their homes. ‘Keep bombing. Do it.’
But Trump has also argued that Iran’s new regime, which will replace many of the top officials killed by the United States and Israel during the war, will be more rational and less extreme.
Not everyone agrees. JPMorgan research analysts said in a note to clients on Monday that the conflict has empowered the Revolutionary Guards and that Iran’s strategy is based on its ability to outwit rather than overwhelm its opponents.
“Iran may have lost its supreme leader and commander and suffered severe damage to its nuclear facilities and military assets, but there are no signs of surrender,” they wrote.
