Christians urged to quit Trump admin after his 'civilisation will die tonight' threat to Iran
Trump's threat to obliterate Iranian civilisation by Tuesday evening sparks intense backlash from US politicians across the aisle, leading critics to question his mental health and call for mass resignations.
Following US President Donald Trump's threat that "civilisation will die tonight" directed at Iran, Christians have been urged to resign from his administration.
Trump's threat to obliterate Iranian civilisation by Tuesday evening if Tehran does not comply with his demands has provoked intense backlash, from US politicians across the aisle, leading critics to question his mental health and call for mass resignations from administration officials.
Trump posted on his Truth Social network on Tuesday, "A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will," 12 hours before the deadline.
Even as the White House dismissed speculation that Trump's statement meant he was ready to use nuclear weapons against Iran, alarm continued to grow in the US, where a former commissioner on Trump’s Commission on Religious Liberty urged "every single Christian" to resign from the Trump administration.
Carrie Prejean Boller said, "The President of the United States is threatening to kill a whole civilisation. I’m calling on every single Christian to RESIGN IMMEDIATELY from this administration".
Boller, who was recently ousted for opposing the commission’s attempts to censor Jewish and Christian faith voices opposed to Israel’s war on Gaza, as well as its attempts to describe all criticism of Zionism as anti-Semitic, added, "If you don’t, the blood of innocent human life is on your hands. Trump is an evil psychopath."
Amid threats of more to come, the UN and other organisations have warned that US and Israeli strikes on Iran's critical infrastructure already underway on Tuesday could constitute war crimes.
Iranian civilian infrastructure, including power and desalination plants, have been repeatedly hit in the conflict that began when the US and Israel launched a war on Iran on February 28.
Trump escalated his rhetoric towards Iran on Monday, vowing to carry out the "complete demolition" of Iran's critical infrastructure, particularly bridges and power plants if a deal was not reached by late Tuesday.
However, hours before the deadline, Israel stated it had already completed a broad wave of strikes targeting "infrastructure sites" across Iran.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that "a whole civilisation will die tonight" if the country does not heed his call for a deal.
Former congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who distanced herself from Trump last year, stated on X, "We cannot kill an entire civilisation. This is evil and madness."
Former loyalists, including Greene, have joined Democrats calling for Trump's cabinet to invoke the 25th amendment, which provides for a transfer of power if a president is unable to govern, particularly in the event of illness.
Popular conservative commentator Tucker Carlson urged US military personnel to defy Trump’s orders, saying, “If you work in the White House, or in the US Military, now it's time to say ‘NO’ to the president.”
"No, in case you're thinking about using some weapon of mass destruction against the population of Iran. And if given the order, say I'm not carrying it out'."
"Figure out the codes on the [nuclear] football yourself because everything hangs in the balance right now. This is not hysteria, this is 100 percent real," Carlson added.
World War 3
House Democratic Leadership, led by Hakeem Jeffries, issued a statement calling Trump "completely unhinged" and saying his threat to eradicate an entire civilisation "shocks the conscience."
They demanded a decisive congressional response to stop the "reckless war of choice" before it leads to World War 3.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called Trump an "extremely sick person" and warned that Republicans who refuse to oppose the "wanton war of choice" will "own every consequence."
Republican Senator Ron Johnson, a Trump ally, said he was "hoping and praying" the president was "just using this as bluster."
He added: "We are not at war with the Iranian people. We are trying to liberate them."
Republican lawmaker Don Bacon framed Trump’s threat positively as classic "negotiating Trump style," suggesting the end result would allow Persian civilisation to "thrive again free from Ayatollahs" after government pressure.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a longtime Iran hawk, voiced full support for Trump’s threat, saying Trump is right to insist on regime-change-level outcomes and that if Iran doesn’t comply, "he’s right to blow up their crucial infrastructure so they can’t go back to their old ways… I’m with @POTUS 100 percent."
Former US Ambassador Michael McFaul, however, highlighted the apparent contradiction in Trump’s messaging, tweeting: "How can Trump threaten to kill ‘a whole civilisation’ in one sentence and also ask for God’s blessing of that same civilisation in another sentence?"
McFaul said Trump’s "irrational" and "unhinged" rhetoric does not serve the interests of the American people.
"America has never been in the business of destroying whole civilisations. That's not who we are. In making such a threat, Trump is grossly out of step with American values and American society."