April 06, 2026 01:33 PM UTC

FIFA Peace Prize Winner Reiterates War Crimes Threat

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• by: Colorado Pols

In case you missed it during your Easter celebration, President Trump on Sunday escalated his rhetoric on the Iran War to include profanity and threats of war crimes:

As The New York Times reports, Trump’s unhinged ranting is unprecedented — and likely to backfire on the United States:

No other recent American president has talked so openly about committing potential war crimes, legal experts, historians and former U.S. officials say. Wartime American presidents and their aides have usually insisted they were trying to follow international and U.S. military law, even if they violated it in some cases.

International laws aimed at preventing the horrors of total war are codified in a series of agreements, including the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions, the Nuremberg Principles and the United Nations Charter. Deliberate attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure violate those. So does pillaging a country, which Mr. Trump has suggested he might do by taking Iran’s oil. [Pols emphasis]

The Trump administration’s language and actions could have far-reaching consequences. Within Iran, it is likely to galvanize opposition to the United States, including among some ordinary Iranians who have protested their own government.

“I don’t believe that Iranians have rallied around a deeply unpopular regime, but the destruction of infrastructure and rising civilian casualties strengthen the regime’s narrative that this is a war on the nation, not just its rulers,” said Karim Sadjadpour, a scholar of Iran at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Any hope that the sentiments behind Trump’s weekend tantrum would have dissipated today were flushed down the golden toilet. As The Associated Press reports from a White House press conference:

Trump says he’s “not at all” concerned about committing war crimes as he continues to threaten destruction of Iran’s bridges and power plants if they don’t meet a Tuesday-evening deadline to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

“I hope I don’t have to do it,” Trump added.

As The New York Times continues in a separate story:

President Trump on Monday escalated his threats to devastate Iran if it does not reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even as he again floated the possibility that diplomacy may yet avert steps to prolong and deepen the war.

“We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o’clock tomorrow night, where every power plant in Iran will be out of business, burning, exploding and never to be used again,” Mr. Trump said at a White House news conference. If the attacks take place, he added, “It will take them 100 years to rebuild.”…[Pols emphasis]

…At an earlier White House appearance, Mr. Trump added to the conflicting signals that have characterized the conflict, now in its second month, by saying that he wanted the United States to take Iran’s oil and profit from it. That would imply a long-term and risky U.S. presence in the region, but “unfortunately the American people would like to see us come home.”

This also happened today, in the very same press conference:

Trump said he believes that God supports the United States actions in the war against Iran. “God is good,” the president said. He added he doesn’t like “seeing people killed,” claimed that he had “ended eight wars” and suggested he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize.

It’s no wonder why there have been renewed calls to invoke the 25th Amendment to remove a clearly-deranged Trump from office. That includes this message from Adam Cochran, a professor at Colorado Mesa University in Grand Junction:

We’ll be sure to let you know as soon as Congressional Republicans decide to show their concern.