Trump Warns Civilization Will Die as Strikes on Iran Escalate Before Deadline

Strikes on Iranian infrastructure were already underway when President Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that "a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again," the most apocalyptic threat yet from a president who hours earlier had vowed to destroy every bridge and power plant in the country before his 8 p.m. Eastern deadline expired.

A strike in Alborz province, northwest of Tehran, killed 18 people according to Iranian state media. Power went out in parts of Karaj, just west of the capital, after strikes hit transmission lines and a substation. U.S. forces struck Kharg Island, Iran's main oil export terminal in the Persian Gulf. Israel acknowledged hitting Iranian railways, highway bridges, a petrochemical plant, and Khorramabad International Airport in the country's west. At least two people were killed and three injured in strikes on the Tabriz-Zanjan freeway in the northwest, according to Revolutionary Guard-linked media.

The strikes preceded Trump's 8 p.m. Eastern deadline demanding Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint through which approximately 20 million barrels of oil per day moved in 2024, equivalent to about 20% of global petroleum consumption. In 2025, the Strait carried 34% of all global crude oil trade; China and India together received 44% of those exports. The waterway also carries 20% of the world's liquefied natural gas, making any closure catastrophic for energy markets from Europe to Asia.

At a Monday news conference, Trump had pledged to decimate "every bridge in Iran" by midnight and put "every power plant in Iran" permanently out of service. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that if Trump followed through, fuel could be cut off "for years." At the civilian level, the Iranian regime called on young people to form human chains around power plants as the deadline neared.

Iran put forward a 10-point ceasefire proposal that included security guarantees against future attacks, an end to Israeli strikes on Hezbollah in Lebanon, and the removal of sanctions, in exchange for reopening the Strait at a $2 million fee per ship. Iranian officials and the semi-official Mehr News Agency claimed critical infrastructure on Kharg Island remained undamaged.

The escalation drew sharp legal condemnation. Kenneth Roth, former executive director of Human Rights Watch, said Trump was "openly threatening collective punishment, targeting not the Iranian military but the Iranian people," calling it a violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The threats against civilian targets also placed the U.S. military in a significant legal and moral quandary.

Trump's rhetoric fractured his own political coalition. Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a staunch Trump ally, said on the John Solomon Reports podcast he was "hoping and praying" the infrastructure threats were "bluster," adding: "We are not at war with the Iranian people. We are trying to liberate them." Former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene went further, suggesting Trump be removed under the 25th Amendment after the "whole civilization" post.

More than 3,400 people have been killed across the Middle East since the conflict began, including over 1,600 civilians, according to HRANA. At least 1,400 died in Lebanon and 23 in Israel. Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed in combat; two more died of noncombat causes. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel was hitting Iranian railways and bridges used to transport weapons and military equipment, framing the strikes as targeting regime supply lines rather than civilian infrastructure. Whether the combined pressure of strikes and the expiring deadline would produce a negotiated outcome or a deeper catastrophe remained the central question as the clock ran out.