‘Blow up everything’: Trump threatens to obliterate Iran’s infrastructure again, the same threat he quietly backed down from last week

President Donald Trump has once again threatened to destroy Iran’s infrastructure, just days after backing down from an almost identical warning last week. The new threat was posted early Monday morning on Truth Social, and follows a pattern of announcements that appear timed around financial market activity.

According to The Daily Beast, Trump said the U.S. is in “serious discussions” with a “NEW, AND MORE REASONABLE, REGIME” to end military operations in Iran, claiming “Great progress has been made.” 

But he also warned: “if for any reason a deal is not shortly reached…and if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!).” 

Trump’s shifting stance on the Strait of Hormuz signals a deeper inconsistency in his Iran strategy

He added that any strikes would be “in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed.” Iran’s government has publicly denied that any back-channel peace talks are happening.

Trump made an almost identical threat on March 23, then reversed course hours later, postponing the deadline after citing “very good and productive conversations” with Tehran. Iran’s foreign ministry flatly denied any talks had taken place. 

Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average traded higher early Monday, as investors appeared to grow more confident that the conflict could be nearing a resolution. Trump has also contradicted himself on the Strait of Hormuz. 

At a Cabinet meeting last week, he said its closure doesn’t “affect” the U.S., yet his latest post demands its immediate reopening. The strait is a 21-mile-wide waterway between Iran and Oman and is the world’s most important energy corridor, handling about 20 percent of global oil supply. Trump has made several eyebrow-raising remarks at investor events in recent weeks as well.

A recent wave of drone strikes in and around the waterway has led insurers to pull coverage, making commercial transit economically unviable for most operators and pushing oil prices up sharply. The war itself began on February 28 with coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran. It has already killed at least 13 Americans and triggered a global energy crisis, with the average national fuel price in the U.S. now at $3.94 a gallon.

The Pentagon has asked Congress for an additional $200 billion to fund the conflict, a cost Trump has dismissed as “a small price to pay.” Monday’s post also comes as the Pentagon and White House are drawing up plans for a potential ground escalation, which has alarmed even some of Trump’s most loyal supporters.

Around 3,500 U.S. troops are already in the region aboard the USS Tripoli, with thousands more on the way. The Pentagon is reportedly preparing for raids by special forces and conventional infantry, which would expose American soldiers to Iranian drones, missiles, and improvised explosives. Meanwhile, congress recently approved record deportation funding as the administration continues to push its domestic enforcement agenda alongside its foreign policy moves.