President Donald Trump’s early morning Easter Sunday Truth Social tirade has backfired spectacularly.
At 8 a.m. on Sunday, the president posted an expletive-laden rant featuring a warning for Iran that the country would be “living in hell” if it did not open the Strait of Hormuz.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” Trump, 79, wrote.
“Open the F—n’ Strait, you crazy b-----ds, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!” he continued, before ending with, “Praise be to Allah.”
If the president intended for his incendiary post to calm the markets, it has had the opposite effect, instead sending oil prices even higher on Sunday, CNN reported.
The cost of Brent crude rose 1.4 percent to $110.60 while U.S. crude rose 1.8 percent to $113.60, their highest in over three years.
Gas prices are at their highest since June 2022, having risen by over 38 percent since the war began to a national average of $4.11 on Sunday.
Meanwhile, stocks fell on Sunday after markets were closed Friday, with Dow futures down 0.69 percent, S&P 500 futures down 0.76 percent, and Nasdaq futures down 0.91 percent.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
An Iranian official responded to Trump’s Truth Social post by asserting that the strait will remain closed until the country is “fully compensated” for the damage it has suffered during Trump’s war.
He also dismissed Trump’s threats as a sign that the U.S. has “resorted to obscenities and nonsense out of sheer desperation and anger.”
The renewed threats came less than a week after the president claimed that the U.S. did not need the Strait of Hormuz in his Wednesday address to the nation.
“The United States imports almost no oil through the Hormuz Strait and won’t be taking any in the future. We don’t need it,” Trump said.
The president has repeatedly leveled threats at Iran in an attempt to force it to reopen the strait, including threatening to strike vital infrastructure, despite warnings that such acts could constitute war crimes.
“Once again, the US president openly threatens to destroy infrastructure essential to civilian survival in Iran,” Iran’s mission to the United Nations said on Sunday.
“The international community and all states have legal obligations to prevent such atrocious acts of war crimes. They must act now. Tomorrow is too late.”
On Thursday, dozens of international law experts signed an open letter expressing “profound concern” about violations of international law made by the U.S., Israel, and Iran during the ongoing conflict in the Middle East.
“International law protects from attack objects indispensable to the survival of civilians, and the attacks threatened by Trump, if implemented, could entail war crimes‚” the experts wrote in response to the president’s initial threats against Iran’s power plants.
“We are gravely concerned that the conduct and threats outlined here are causing serious harm to civilians in the Middle East,” the letter continues, “and that they also contribute to escalating the conflict, damaging the environment and the global economy, and that they risk degrading the rule of law and fundamental norms that protect every nation’s civilians.”
