Emergency crews work at the scene of a U.S.-Israeli strike on an apartment building on April 7, 2026 in Tehran, Iran, which also destroyed the adjacent Rafi-Nia Synagogue. (Photo: Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump continued to escalate his rhetoric against Iran on Tuesday, even as some Republicans in Congress began backtracking on his declaration, threatening that “all of civilization will die tonight, never to be restored.”
“I don’t want this to happen, but it probably will,” he wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social.
He concluded his 85-word message with: “May God bless the great nation of Iran!”
Trump released the message early morning about 12 hours before Iran’s self-imposed deadline to open the Strait of Hormuz under threat of U.S. attacks on the country’s bridges and power plants, he said. he wrote Sunday in a swear-filled Truth Social post.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., condemned Trump as an “exceptionally sick person.”
“Any Republican who refuses to join us in voting against this senseless war of choice suffers all the consequences of whatever the hell this is,” he said. he wrote on Tuesday morning.
Some Democrats in Congress said it was time to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution and remove Trump from office.
After rescue operations, threats emerge
After Iran was shot down, there was a flurry of modern threats from Trump two American military planes. According to the president and U.S. officials, U.S. forces and intelligence officers launched a large-scale operation to rescue one of the plane’s weapons system officers, which was successful on Sunday. Two pilots have already been rescued.
On Tuesday, the United States struck Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil export terminal, According to according to the associated press, and israeli forces hit eight bridges, according to a post on X by the Israeli military.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Tuesday that forces also struck railway tracks. “Yesterday we destroyed transport planes and dozens of helicopters. Today we attacked railway tracks and bridges used by the Revolutionary Guard,” he said. he wrote on social media.
Trump repeated on Monday, during a long White House press conference, a threat to bomb Iran’s civilian infrastructure. Targeting civilian infrastructure violates international humanitarian law, incl Geneva Conventions which were updated after World War II.
Sense. Ron Johnson, John Curtis object
Republicans on Capitol Hill, except Sen. Rand Paul and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, blocked efforts to stop Trump’s war with Iran, but two more GOP voices opposing the conflict have emerged in recent days.
Senator Ron Johnson, D-Wisconsin, he said Conservative commentator John Solomon said on Monday that he opposes Trump’s threats to bomb civilian targets in Iran.
“I hope and pray that President Trump is just using this as a brag,” he said on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast produced by Just the News. “… We are not at war with the Iranian people. We are trying to liberate them.”
said Senator John Curtis of Utah opposition Friday regarding the financing of the US-Israeli war in Iran.
“I support the President’s actions to defend our national security interests in the Middle East. However, we must maintain a clear-eyed view of history and the Constitution. I support maintaining our readiness and replenishing supplies, but I cannot support the financing of further military operations without a formal declaration of war by Congress,” he wrote in X.
The United States and Israel launched a joint bombing campaign against Iran on February 28, killing the Islamic State’s supreme religious leader, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, and numerous other senior leaders.
In response, Iran has targeted the global oil trade, effectively choking off the Strait of Hormuz, the main sea route for one-fifth of the world’s crude oil and liquid natural gas resources.
Amendment 25
Trump’s rash threat to destroy Iran’s “entire civilization” has sparked numerous calls for the president to be removed from office.
Former House Republican and Trump loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia was quick to condemn Trump’s latest threat.
“25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb was dropped on America. We cannot kill the entire civilization. This is evil and madness,” she wrote in X.
Nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers, including several progressive members, also took to social media to make a call on the issue Amendment 25which authorizes the vice president and a majority of the members of the cabinet or Congress to declare the president incapacitated. This amendment was never invoked.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, R-Ariz., accused Trump of threatening “mass war crimes” and also linked it to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
“In the last 48 hours alone, rhetoric has gone beyond all limits. Pete Hegseth is complicit. I have called for the 25th Amendment and I am presenting articles of impeachment against Hegseth,” said Ansari, an Iranian-American.
Sen. Ed Markey, R-Mass., said “removal is a top priority.”
In a video message posted on X, Markey called on the House to “immediately” return to session and pass articles of impeachment against Trump, as well as for the Senate to remove him from office.
“He is completely unstable and dangerous,” Markey said.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-I., responded to these calls, saying, “The President is facing a serious mental breakdown; I agree on this.”
“But unfortunately, invoking the 25th is not realistic at this time, given his bizarre cabinet of sycophants and eccentrics and Republican “foam spikes.” We’ll have to buckle up and win it the old-fashioned way.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur, whose northwest Ohio seat is at stake, did not mention the 25th Amendment but called on GOP congressional leaders to respond as Trump “wantonly threatens to commit atrocities and war crimes.”
“This is uncompromising saber rattling, following last week’s repeated threats to violate international law. The President is using the power of the United States military to wage war without the constitutionally required consent of Congress. Until Congress reasserts itself as a co-equal branch of government, it will remain unchecked and our nation’s security will continue to be at risk,” she said in a statement.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
