President Trump used an expletive-laden social media post to taunt Iranian leaders, saying that the United States would attack if they did not fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
April 5, 2026
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President Trump on Sunday escalated his threats to bomb Iranian power plants within the next two days and taunted the country’s leaders in an expletive-laden social media post.
Mr. Trump, seemingly emboldened by the successful U.S. rescue of an American airman in Iran over the weekend, issued a new ultimatum to Iran to end its chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz, a major Persian Gulf waterway for the transport of oil and gas, by Monday.
If Iran’s government did not, he said, U.S. forces would target the country’s energy infrastructure, which supplies power for millions of civilians. Mr. Trump made the point in a crudely worded social media post.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” Mr. Trump said. “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH.”
“Praise be to Allah,” he added, using the Muslim name for God.
In response to Mr. Trump, Mizan, an outlet affiliated with Iran’s judiciary, said that “Iran’s steadfastness and resistance have driven Trump to the brink of madness.” Mizan also said he had insulted the Iranians with “vile” language.
The president has previously postponed his deadline to attack twice. On Sunday, he told Fox News that he believed he could reach a deal with Iran by Monday, then turned back to threats, saying that if Iran did not make a deal, he was “considering blowing everything up” and taking control of its oil. The Omani foreign ministry said officials had discussed how to reopen the Strait of Hormuz with Iranian counterparts without reaching a definitive agreement.
Iran has threatened to retaliate by intensifying its attacks on critical infrastructure in Israel and Arab states that are allied with the United States. An escalation could further derail the lives of civilians throughout the region and add to worries about the global economy, which has been rattled by soaring energy prices since the start of the war.
Over the past two days, the U.S. military has been in a race with Iranian armed forces to find the missing airman after an F-15E jet was shot down over Iran on Friday. It was the first known instance of a U.S. combat aircraft being downed by enemy fire since the start of the war.
The plane’s pilot was quickly rescued. But a second officer was stranded in Iran and injured in the incident. American commandos found the airman deep inside Iranian territory under the cover of darkness.
There were no U.S. casualties among the rescue team, Mr. Trump said on Sunday. The rescued officer had “sustained injuries, but he will be just fine,” Mr. Trump added.
The incident underscored Iran’s ability to fight back despite weeks of attacks on its military arsenal. Another U.S. aircraft, an A-10 Warthog attack plane, crashed near the Strait of Hormuz at about the same time, and the lone pilot was rescued, two U.S. officials said.
On Sunday, Israel and several Gulf countries reported attempted drone and missile strikes by Iran. Kuwaiti officials said Iranian drones significantly damaged two power and water desalination plants, and sparked a fire at the Kuwait Petroleum Corporation’s oil complex.
Here’s what else we’re covering:
Airman rescue: U.S. commandos operated deep inside Iran at night in one of the most challenging and complex rescues in the history of American special operations. A Navy SEAL Team extracted him after a nerve-racking race between the U.S. and Iran. Read more ›
Dwindling interceptors: The war in the Middle East has underscored the importance of antimissile interceptors in warfare but the conflict is rapidly depleting global supplies. Israel and Persian Gulf states have managed to weather most Iranian ballistic missile barrages thanks to the sophisticated defenses, but it is unclear how long the stockpiles will last, even as conflicts loom elsewhere around the world. Despite U.S. and Israeli efforts, Iran has been quickly repairing its bombarded missile bunkers and silos, according to U.S. intelligence reports. Read more ›
Petrochemical factories hit: Israel on Saturday struck a petrochemical complex in Mahshahr, a sprawling industrial center in Iran’s southwest that plays a significant role in the country’s economy. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel said the targeted sites were part of a “money machine” that brought in revenues for the Iranian government. At least five people were killed and 170 others injured in the attack on the major oil industry hub, state media in Iran reported.
7 minutes ago Aaron Boxerman, Reporting from Jerusalem
Iran’s leadership, at least in public, is voicing defiance to President Trump’s expletive-laden ultimatum to bomb Iran’s power plants by Tuesday unless Iran fully reopened the Strait of Hormuz. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, wrote on social media that Trump’s “reckless moves are dragging the United States into a living HELL for every single family.” He added that “the only real solution is respecting the rights of the Iranian people and ending this dangerous game.” He did not specify on what terms Iran might reach an agreement with the United States to reopen the critical waterway.
50 minutes ago
Benjamin Mullin and Rebecca F. Elliott
OPEC+ warns of a slow recovery after the war
Smoke rising from an oil warehouse following a suspected drone attack last week near Erbil, Iraq.Credit...-/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesEight members of the consortium of influential oil-producing nations known as OPEC Plus expressed concern on Sunday about the toll the war with Iran was taking on global oil supplies and energy infrastructure in the region.
The group, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Kuwait, also said that it would raise its oil production quotas by 206,000 barrels a day next month, a largely symbolic move because Iran’s virtual blockade of the Strait of Hormuz has obstructed their shipping of oil to world markets.
“The committee stressed that any actions undermining energy supply security, whether through attacks on infrastructure or disruption of international maritime routes, increase market volatility,” the group said in its announcement. It added that “restoring damaged energy assets to full capacity is both costly and takes a long time.”
President Trump on Sunday threatened Iran with further devastation unless it took steps to open the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping lane that has become a linchpin of the war. In an expletive-laden post on Sunday, Mr. Trump ordered Iran to open the strait, “or you’ll be living in hell,” saying that Tuesday would be “power plant day, and bridge day, all wrapped in one.”
Several of the biggest oil-producing members of OPEC Plus have slashed oil production in the face of the severe shipping constraints.
By mid-March, Persian Gulf countries had taken an estimated 10 million barrels of daily oil production offline, or about 10 percent of global supplies, the International Energy Agency said. It forecast that the cuts would deepen as the conflict wore on.
As of Thursday, international oil prices had climbed roughly 50 percent, to $109 a barrel, since the United States and Israel started the war on Feb. 28.
The eight members of OPEC Plus member countries involved in Sunday’s decision were: Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Kazakhstan, Algeria and Oman.
Where aircraft wreckage was seen on Sunday after rescue operation
© Mapbox © OpenStreetMap
Source: Social media footage aired on Iranian state television.
By The New York Times
52 minutes agoFarnaz Fassihi, International reporter
The Iranian Red Crescent Society said on Sunday that one of its ambulances had been hit in an airstrike as it was on an emergency relief mission in Sepidan County, Fars Province. Photographs and videos published on the Red Crescent’s social media page show the shell of a white vehicle scorched and mangled. The organization said that 46 of ambulances belonging to it or emergency medical services have been damaged during the war and that four of its aid workers have been killed.
58 minutes agoJohnatan Reiss Reporting from Tel Aviv
A residential building in Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, was hit on Sunday, authorities said, minutes after the Israeli military said it had detected missile launches from Iran. An Israeli military spokesman said it appeared to have been struck by a missile.
Emergency crews were working to extinguish a large fire and search for people possibly trapped under the rubble, Israel’s Fire and Rescue Authority said. One man was seriously injured at the site, according to Magen David Adom, the national emergency service, while three more sustained light injuries.
Ariel Schalit/Associated Press
Isabel Kershner and Sanam Mahoozi
An advisor to Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has threatened to orchestrate the closure of another strategic waterway, a move that could increase disruption to global trade and oil and gas suppllies caused by the war. The advisor, Ali Akbar Velayati, warned in a social media post on Sunday that Iran could target the strait of Bab al-Mandab, a narrow shipping route at the southern end of the Red Sea. Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital transit route for gas and oil from the Persian Gulf, spurring a sharp rise in global energy prices.
2 hours ago
Julian E. Barnes
Julian E. Barnes covers American intelligence agencies and international security matters.
Here’s how the C.I.A. helped locate a U.S. airman hiding on an Iranian ridgeline
A still image from a video of U.S. aircraft over southwest Iran on Friday.Credit...UGC/AFP Via Getty ImagesWhen word reached Langley, Va., on Friday that Iran had downed a U.S. military jet and two Air Force officers had ejected into enemy territory, America’s top intelligence officers sprang into action.
While the pilot of the F-15E Strike Eagle was relatively quickly rescued, the U.S. military was unable to locate a second crew member, a weapons systems officer, setting off an urgent race to find him before Iranian forces did.
The C.I.A., which traditionally assists with efforts to rescue American pilots trapped behind enemy lines, developed a deception plan to buy time to find the airman by keeping the Iranians away from where he might be, according to a senior administration official. The official and others spoke under the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive rescue operation and intelligence collection.
While U.S. officials did not initially know exactly where the weapons officer was, they knew he had moved from where his ejection seat had hit the ground. They also knew he was injured, adding to the urgency of the search.
While it is unclear exactly what the deception plan involved or how successful it was precisely, the C.I.A. campaign aimed to spread word in Iran that the airman had been found and was moving out of the country in a ground convoy. The hope was that the Iranians would shift their search efforts from the place where the airman was thought to be, to the roads out of the region.
The C.I.A.’s operation did appear to cause confusion and uncertainty among the Iranian forces hunting for the airman, according to a senior administration official.
The airman evaded Iranian forces for more than 24 hours, eventually hiking up a 7,000-foot ridgeline and hiding in a crevice.
All Air Force fighter pilots and weapons officers are equipped with a beacon and a secure communication device for coordinating with rescuers. But airmen are trained not to signal their location constantly, and restrict the use of the beacon, in case enemy forces can also track its location.
A senior administration official declined to describe exactly what piece of technology the C.I.A. had used to locate the airman but said the equipment used was unique to the agency.
As soon as he was found, the agency passed the information to the Pentagon and White House, which enacted their specific plan to extract the officer from his hiding spot, an operation that involved hundreds of special operations troops and other military personnel.
The U.S. military began dropping bombs in the area to keep away Iranian forces. As U.S. commandos moved to where the downed airman was hiding, they fired their weapons to keep Iranian forces away from the rescue site, but did not have to engage in a direct firefight with the Iranians, a U.S. military official said, a possible sign that the deception campaign had lured away at least some of the Iranian forces hunting for him.
Rescue planes then flew the injured airman to Kuwait for medical treatment.
2 hours agoZolan Kanno-Youngs, White House reporter
In an interview with Fox News, President Trump said he believed he could reach a deal with Iran by Monday. The president has regularly issued conflicting statements about his strategy to end the war, and also said in the interview that if Iran did not make a deal, he was “considering blowing everything up” and taking control of its oil. Trump added that the Iranians who were negotiating with the United States have been granted amnesty to continue the talks.
3 hours agoDavid E. Sanger
David E. Sanger has covered five American presidents. He has written about the American and Israeli efforts to contain and sabotage the Iranian nuclear program for more than 20 years.
President Trump at the White House last week.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times
After celebrating the recovery of a lost airman from the mountains in Iran on Saturday night, President Trump began Easter morning with a blistering threat to Iran that he would begin bombing its electric grid and bridges starting Tuesday morning, using an obscenity to punctuate his demand that the government in Tehran reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Mr. Trump has never shied away from threats and occasional vulgar language on social media, but this post would have stood out on any day, much less on what most Christians consider the holiest day of the year.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” he wrote a little after 8 a.m. “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah.”
The president has swerved in the past week between claiming that the strait is not his problem, because the United States barely purchases oil flowing through the 21-mile wide passage, and threatening to go after civilian infrastructure if Iran continues to restrict which ships can pass — and to charge $2 million tolls to those few ships it lets through.
On Sunday morning he was back in threatening mode, with a vengeance.
Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, called Mr. Trump’s comments “completely utterly, unhinged” in a post on X.
"He’s already killed thousands,” Mr. Murphy wrote. “He’s going to kill thousands more.”
Under the Geneva Conventions, striking power plants and bridges that are used primarily by civilians is off limits; they are not considered military targets. Administration officials are already beginning to make the argument that hitting them would not be a war crime because they are also crucial to the missile and nuclear programs. But that loophole could apply to almost any piece of civilian infrastructure, even water supplies.
Mr. Trump’s vehemence may well underscore to the Iranians how powerful a tool control of the strait remain, perhaps their most effective surviving weapon after the loss of their navy, their air force and much of their arsenal of missile and launchers. The strait is not only the passageway for about 20 percent of the global oil supply, it is critical for fertilizer and for helium, which is critical to the manufacture of semiconductors.
Mr. Trump is considering a ground operation to open the strait. But it would be complex — and may well require taking the Iranian shoreline of the strait and perhaps part of the Persian Gulf. Iran has many options to harass shipping — including laying mines and speedboats that can be used to launch shoulder-fired short-range missiles — that might make passage risky enough that shippers will not try to run through the narrow passage.
Mr. Trump has called on European nations, China and India, all of which depend heavily on oil that moves through the strait, to join in an international coalition to keep it open. But because none of those countries were consulted about Mr. Trump’s decision to attack Iran, and some believe the war to be illegal or unwise, they have not yet agreed to participate in what would be a high-risk effort to keep it open.
Trump seems emboldened by a successful rescue in making new threats
President Trump at the White House last week.Credit...Doug Mills/The New York TimesAfter celebrating the recovery of a lost airman from the mountains in Iran on Saturday night, President Trump began Easter morning with a blistering threat to Iran that he would begin bombing its electric grid and bridges starting Tuesday morning, using an obscenity to punctuate his demand that the government in Tehran reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Mr. Trump has never shied away from threats and occasional vulgar language on social media, but this post would have stood out on any day, much less on what most Christians consider the holiest day of the year.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran,” he wrote a little after 8 a.m. “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH. Praise be to Allah.”
The president has swerved in the past week between claiming that the strait is not his problem, because the United States barely purchases oil flowing through the 21-mile wide passage, and threatening to go after civilian infrastructure if Iran continues to restrict which ships can pass — and to charge $2 million tolls to those few ships it lets through.
On Sunday morning he was back in threatening mode, with a vengeance.
Senator Chris Murphy, Democrat of Connecticut, called Mr. Trump’s comments “completely utterly, unhinged” in a post on X.
"He’s already killed thousands,” Mr. Murphy wrote. “He’s going to kill thousands more.”
Under the Geneva Conventions, striking power plants and bridges that are used primarily by civilians is off limits; they are not considered military targets. Administration officials are already beginning to make the argument that hitting them would not be a war crime because they are also crucial to the missile and nuclear programs. But that loophole could apply to almost any piece of civilian infrastructure, even water supplies.
Mr. Trump’s vehemence may well underscore to the Iranians how powerful a tool control of the strait remain, perhaps their most effective surviving weapon after the loss of their navy, their air force and much of their arsenal of missile and launchers. The strait is not only the passageway for about 20 percent of the global oil supply, it is critical for fertilizer and for helium, which is critical to the manufacture of semiconductors.
Mr. Trump is considering a ground operation to open the strait. But it would be complex — and may well require taking the Iranian shoreline of the strait and perhaps part of the Persian Gulf. Iran has many options to harass shipping — including laying mines and speedboats that can be used to launch shoulder-fired short-range missiles — that might make passage risky enough that shippers will not try to run through the narrow passage.
Mr. Trump has called on European nations, China and India, all of which depend heavily on oil that moves through the strait, to join in an international coalition to keep it open. But because none of those countries were consulted about Mr. Trump’s decision to attack Iran, and some believe the war to be illegal or unwise, they have not yet agreed to participate in what would be a high-risk effort to keep it open.
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