US President Donald Trump issued a stark warning on Tuesday, just hours before his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz was set to expire, cautioning of devastating consequences.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” he said in a social media post.
In the same message, Trump appeared to adopt a slightly different tone, hinting at the potential for regime change in Iran and a resulting shift in outcomes.
“However, now that we have complete and total regime change, where different, smarter and less radicalised minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, who knows?” he wrote on Truth Social.
He added, “We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world.”
Trump also leveled criticism at Iran for decades of “extortion, corruption and death,” asserting that “47 years” of such actions would come to an end.