President Donald Trump’s threats to destroy Iranian civilization have accomplished what nothing over the past year could — turning some of the most prominent voices in his own MAGA base against him.
“This is evil and madness.” “He is a genocidal lunatic.” “Vile on every level.”
These aren’t quotes from Democrats; they’re some of Trump’s most loyal adherents, who are both fed up with what they see as the president’s abandonment of his “America First” platform and alarmed by the destruction he has promised to unleash as his deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, 8 p.m. ET on Tuesday, looms.
On Easter Sunday, Trump issued an expletive-laden ultimatum to Iran. “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH!” he posted. “Praise be to Allah.”
Early Tuesday morning, Trump escalated that rhetoric considerably. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
“Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization,” former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wrote on X Tuesday morning. “This is evil and madness.”
“The 25th Amendment needs to be invoked. He is a genocidal lunatic,” podcaster Candace Owens said to her 7.8 million followers. “Our Congress and military need to intervene. We are beyond madness.”
Podcaster Alex Jones called Trump’s threat “the definition of genocide,” and said he “talks like a supervillain from a Marvel comic.”
“I am proud I backed Trump the last 10 years, so much good happened — globalism was absolutely discredited, dismantled, as part of a larger wave worldwide,” Jones said. “But this new Trump — really started when Elon Musk got run out of there in the last eight months — is a disaster.”
On a Monday-night episode of his podcast, Tucker Carlson lambasted Trump for his Easter morning message, calling it “vile on every level.”
“How dare you speak that way on Easter morning to the country? Who do you think you are?” Carlson said. “You’re tweeting out the f-word on Easter morning?”
“This is a mockery not just of Islam,” he added, “it’s a mockery of Christianity.”
By Tuesday morning, Carlson’s episode had almost 1.1 million views on YouTube.
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Even former Trump administration officials have questioned Trump’s posture.
Joe Kent, a former counterterrorism official who resigned last month in opposition to the war in Iran, said in a post on X that if Trump follows through on his threat, the U.S. “will no longer be viewed as a stabilizing force in the world, but as an agent of chaos — effectively ending our status as the world’s greatest superpower.”
“This would upend our economy and shatter the global order,” Kent added. “The process is already underway, yet we still have time to avert catastrophe if Trump finds the courage to pursue serious negotiations rather than reckless rage and destruction.”
Matthew Bartlett, a former appointee at the State Department in the first Trump administration, told MS NOW the backlash reflects a contradiction Trump himself created.
“For over a decade, he conditioned the American public and his MAGA base against war in the Middle East,” Bartlett said. “Americans want to see strength abroad but not bloodlust.”
“I am not sure talking about war like a psychopath is winning over the hearts and minds of Iranians or Americans,” he added. “In war and peace, what you say is just as important as what you do.”
“Sometimes,” Bartlett continued, “the madman theory reveals only a mad man.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Akayla Gardner contributed reporting.
Julianne McShane is a breaking news reporter for MS NOW who also covers the politics of abortion and reproductive rights. You can send her tips from a non-work device on Signal at jmcshane.19 or follow her on X or Bluesky.