President Donald Trump on Tuesday sharply ramped up his threats against Iran, warning “a whole civilization will die tonight” unless the country’s leadership strikes a deal that involves reopening the Strait of Hormuz.
The threat came after U.S. forces overnight struck military targets on Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal, a White House official confirmed to CNBC.
“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” Trump wrote Tuesday morning on Truth Social.
“However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?” he wrote.
“We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.”
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a news conference in James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on April 06, 2026 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong | Getty Images
Iran has blocked most oil transit through the Strait of Hormuz since the U.S. and Israel began the war in late February. The closure has led to a historic oil supply shock, which quickly sent global energy prices soaring.
Trump has boasted that Iran’s military has been “obliterated” but acknowledged it still controls ship traffic flow through the strait, giving it key leverage.
In a belligerent Easter social media post on Sunday, he threatened to destroy Iran’s bridges and power plants by Tuesday night, demanding Tehran “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.”
He later set a deadline of 8 p.m. ET Tuesday.
The White House did not immediately respond to CNBC’s request for comment on Trump’s latest post.
At a White House news conference on Monday, Trump said that for Iran to stave off that deadline, it would have to agree to “a deal that’s acceptable to me, and part of that deal is going to be, we want free traffic of oil and everything else.” Trump has criticized Iran’s talk of tolling the strait and has signaled his interest in the U.S. imposing its own tolls there instead.
The U.S., Iran and regional mediators in the Middle East were reportedly discussing a 45-day ceasefire proposal as a last-ditch attempt to avoid triggering Trump’s looming deadline.
But a White House official told CNBC on Monday morning that Trump has not backed that idea, and Iran has explicitly rejected any temporary ceasefire, calling instead for deal to end the war permanently.
“The only one that’s going to set a ceasefire is me,” Trump told reporters at the White House Easter Egg Roll on Monday when asked about the proposal.
Vice President JD Vance said Tuesday morning in Hungary that the U.S. strikes on Kharg Island are consistent with Trump’s military strategy and his looming deadline for Iran.
“The deadline is eight o’clock,” Vance said in Budapest, where he had traveled to support Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s reelection bid.
“What Iran is trying to do, because they’ve been defeated militarily, is they’re trying to extract as much economic pain on the world as possible, and the president of the United States is a man who recognizes leverage,” he said.
Trump has insisted the Iranian people want the U.S. to keep up its military operations even if it puts them at risk, because they have lived in a “violent, horrible world” under the repressive ruling regime.
“They would be willing to suffer that in order to have freedom,” he said at Monday’s news conference. “We’ve had numerous intercepts, ‘Please keep bombing.’ Bombs that are dropping near their homes. ‘Please keep bombing. Do it.'”
But Trump has also argued that Iran’s new regime, which replaced the many top officials killed by the U.S. and Israel during the war, is more reasonable and less radical.
Not everyone agrees. JPMorgan research analysts said in a Monday client note that the conflict has empowered the Revolutionary Guard and that Iran’s strategy is based around its ability to outlast, rather than outgun, its opponents.
“Iran may have lost its supreme leader and commanders, and suffered severe damage to nuclear facilities and military assets, but there are no signs of capitulation,” they wrote.
