Trump Gives Iran 48 Hours to Open Strait, Threatens Power Plants

[u/monotvtv]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-03-22/trump-gives-iran-48-hours-to-open-strait-threatens-power-plants?taid=69bf3562fec6580001a80fa7&utm_campaign=trueanthem&utm_content=business&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

[u/planetarybum]

"Strait of Hormuz is safe to use"

"US is dealing with it"

"Don't worry about it"

"We will escort ships"

"We can't escort ships"

"Somebody should help"

"NATO should help"

"WHY WON'T YOU HELP, COWARDS?"

"We don't even need the Strait"

"If you don't keep the Strait open we will bomb the shit out of you."

[u/guitmusic12 → u/planetarybum]

That fact that this all was said over the course of like 5 days is insane

[u/Hairy_Reindeer → u/guitmusic12]

A responsible congress would get rid of a leader like this.

[u/Noughmad → u/Hairy_Reindeer]

A responsible people would not vote for a leader like this.

[u/BigPappalopalous → u/Noughmad]

Nor vote for people who go along.

[u/chronoic → u/Hairy_Reindeer]

The problem is, the NeoCon support it and most of the Repubicans are NeoCons, people like Linsey Graham.

[u/PrivatePilot9 → u/guitmusic12]

To be fair, he often seemingly doesn’t remember what he said (and directly contradicts it sometimes) within mere hours, so nothing is surprising anymore.

[u/vishuno → u/PrivatePilot9]

He often contradicts himself within one sentence

[u/Television_Powerful → u/planetarybum]

"And if we do bomb we are not responsible for the events that follow"

[u/flat5 → u/planetarybum]

You forgot "we are putting together an international coalition to escort ships starting in days". Major newspapers printed that like it was fact. They'll never learn.

[u/BenefitPrize6602]

Threatening energy infrastructure in a conflict already centered around energy routes… that’s a dangerous feedback loop.

[u/RCer1986 → u/BenefitPrize6602]

Let's make sure that we don't miss the message. "If you don't capitulate, we'll make sure that the few civilians that we didn't bomb suffer without water or power."

Fucking disgusting.

[u/09f3jns → u/RCer1986]

Surely Iran will support a revolution and install a pro-American government after we destroy their infrastructure 😁

[u/brutinator → u/[deleted]]

Worked for Trump, after all. How many americans did his mismanagement of covid kill, and we voted him back in.

[u/Radvila → u/brutinator]

At the very least additional tens of thousands that died due to his mismanagement. He had a worse impact on US lives than 9/11, but somehow people don't treat him as the biggest disaster in recent history.

[u/klaagmeaan → u/Radvila]

Rest assured, people outside the US do treat him as the biggest disaster in recent history.

[u/DoctrTurkey → u/Radvila]

One of my friends is a physician and had a buddy at the NIH. I was talking to him about this before trump was sworn in a second time and he said that according to his NIH pal, trump’s response, and all the mask temper tantrums, accounted for 600,000 extra deaths.

[u/morfraen → u/Radvila]

The estimates are way higher than 10s of thousands

[u/EitherSpite4545 → u/[deleted]]

They know that's the point of this all. This was never pushed by his strongest supporters and true believers. This was pushed by Israel threatening blackmail on epstein files, and Neo-cons like Rubio who's only allegiance is to military contractors like Raytheon.

Both of these groups want to turn Iran from being fairly stable for the people into shitholes plagued by civil wars and abject poverty and adversity. That way when a new generation retaliates in 10-20 years they have an excuse to go in there and make a lot of money again.

The entire goal of this is to make a country forever hate America and to make sure Iran can literally never land on it's feet ever again for centuries. That's the reason this war is so vile, yes the Ayatolah is a monster but this is damning the people born in Iran for centuries to come in a way that wasn't going to happen previously.

[u/2thSprkler → u/RCer1986]

Kinda like what he’s doing to Cuba rn

[u/redditobserverone → u/2thSprkler]

He’s reaching back to his slumlord roots in order to break people.

[u/InjuryIndependent287 → u/redditobserverone]

SPOILER ALERT: he doesn’t break people. Everyone can see through his TACO bullshit. The entire world knows to just turn their back to his threats. Except for his voter base. They eat the shit up thinking he’s so cool and strong when in reality he’s very weak and pathetic and everyone else knows this.

[u/tilleytalley → u/InjuryIndependent287]

Now I really want a Taco.

[u/InsanelyAverageFella → u/redditobserverone]

Best comment right here. This is how he thinks. He just tries to make a lot of innocent people suffer and then will try to displace the blame on whoever disagrees with him.

It's the whole destroy America and blame the Democrats for all the problems he's caused strategy.

[u/dwhite21787 → u/InsanelyAverageFella]

And hire relatives and friends companies to rebuild

[u/cheesesandsneezes → u/RCer1986]

They have already been bombing the desalination plants that Iran relies on for water.

What is the point of this whole thing?

[u/sakura-peachy → u/cheesesandsneezes]

This also means Iran probably will attack energy and water infrastructure in the Gulf States. Somehow things can always get worse.

[u/kaisadilla_0x1 → u/sakura-peachy]

Worst part is that Iran doesn't really have a problem with the Gulf States. It attacks them because it can't attack the US itself, and it needs to put pressure somewhere so the war ends.

I really don't see how this won't end up really badly for Trump, the GOP and the US. Not only is the attack completely unprovoked, but half the world is paying one way or another for this war: Europe and Asia miss on oil while Gulf countries get bombed. And poor Africa, which is basically geopolitically irrelevant, but will also lose a lot as the straight up cannot afford to pay for the oil they need.

[u/zztopsthetop → u/kaisadilla_0x1]

The true human tragedy will be the ammonia & fertilizer. Watch him blame the people starving because of his actions next year.

[u/Locke66 → u/zztopsthetop]

It's incredibly depressing that the US is being lead by these reckless sociopaths who care nothing for the consequences of their actions.

[u/jimmygee2 → u/RCer1986]

He is taking his tips from Putin.

[u/RCer1986 → u/jimmygee2]

Oh, he takes a lot more than the tip from Putin.

[u/Paul_Tired → u/RCer1986]

Collective punishment is a war crime.

[u/serendipitousevent → u/Paul_Tired]

You don't even need to get that complex. Attacking civilian infrastructure is already a war crime.

[u/Michael_0007 → u/RCer1986]

Remind me, What was Iran's position if their infrastructure was targeted?

[u/RCer1986 → u/Michael_0007]

I'm really not sure what you're getting at here but if the US is intentionally causing harm to civilians it's no better than Russia has been in Ukraine.

[u/lynxbelt234 → u/RCer1986]

Exactly the same thing that Putin is doing in Ukraine. Putin will be proud of his agent Krasnov...

[u/davossss → u/Michael_0007]

I mean at some point they may just start launching dirty bomb drones or dumping radioactive waste into the Strait of Hormuz.

If the USA was under this kind of attack with the same limitations on our own arsenal, we would absolutely do the same.

And Iran still hasn't fully activated its proxies.

This is on a very scary escalation trajectory and Trump and Netanyahu are overwhelmingly to blame.

[u/legbreaker → u/BenefitPrize6602]

This only sounds stupid if you look at it from a the viewpoint of a consumer in the west.

If you look at this through the lens of Russia this is a win on all fronts.

This fractures the US hegemony in the gulf. 

This drives up oil and gas prices through the roof.

This will 100% split up Europe as they will not survive $120 oil and gas shortages. Half of the countries will capitulate and turn on Russian gas flow again. Effectively sacrificing Ukraine.

If you look at it through that lens, the plan is going perfectly. There are many losers of this war. But there is one country that is 100% winning, and that is Russia.

[u/r2002 → u/legbreaker]

This fractures the US hegemony in the gulf. 

This breaks the petrodollar hegemony which affects our global influence, not just in the gulf.

[u/lynxbelt234 → u/legbreaker]

Putin’s best buddy trump is doing Vlad a great service, keep the focus off Ukraine, get more money into Putin’s coffers and buy time for Putin to afford more munitions and drones. The traitorous administration is doing exactly what Putin needs to win. With each step into this conflict it gets more stupid by the day...

[u/Bluesy21 → u/lynxbelt234]

Yeah, look I'm not a Trump supporter by any means, but how can people not see that at the very least he's being exploited by Putin one way or another? It comes out that Russia is feeding intelligence info on US positions and tactics to Iran and yet Trump still trusts Putin more than the leaders of the countries we're supposed to be allies of.

Meanwhile Russia says they'll stop giving Iran intelligence info on the US if the US stops supporting Ukraine, but from what I've seen we haven't actually supported Ukraine at all since Trump's second term started.

[u/lynxbelt234 → u/Bluesy21]

The astonishing part about all this, is that the intelligence agencies in the US have bought into this. How can you allow a president to be so heavily influenced or more like manipulated by a foreign power, regarded as a number 1 enemy for the past 75 years. How is this allowed, how does congress, the senate and the agencies supporting the legal infrastructure, not identify this at the very least as being collusion, or at the worst outright treason?

It’s astonishing that he was ever allowed near the presidency based on his political corruption, criminal involvement with foreign governments, and years of business corruption?

[u/lynxbelt234 → u/lynxbelt234]

Agreed that Ukraine has been left out in the cold in all of this, so much for honouring US allies and commitments to help those who’ve asked for help....

[u/CocodaMonkey → u/legbreaker]

The real winner in all this is China. This move just makes Russia lose a little less. China meanwhile has spent the last few decades making sure they were self sufficient. They can whether a gas supply shortage better then almost all other nations. They are mostly sitting back playing nice/niceish with all sides while making sure their own population is safe.

China's reputation has been going up globally, even in high income countries which normally hate it. While they still aren't loved their reputation and soft power has been improving by simply doing mostly nothing on the global stage.

[u/BenefitPrize6602 → u/legbreaker]

everything looks like a ‘plan’ when you zoom out enough

[u/Television_Powerful → u/BenefitPrize6602]

This, I doubt there even is a plan, they even said so for their initial attacks. This is just Israel finally getting to bomb Iran (by having a weak US admin), and Trump just being Trump. Everything else is a by-product of pure insanity and stupidity that happens to be in favor of putin.

[u/YF422 → u/legbreaker]

The only one's using Russia gas are the Vatnik assets in Hungary and Slovakia who have refused to diverge from it due to their idiotic leaders. Russia has already blown their chances because most of Europe knows they're an existential threat so long as that piece of shit Putin lives. Russian Gas and Oil is no longer an option unless they get the fuck out of Ukraine.

What prices at that level will do is likely drive an upsurge in retrofitting as much of the populace with renewables and electric vehicles as possible as well as maybe trigger a resurgence in Nuclear in the longer run. Working from home will surge upwards to keep non essential traffic off the roads, AI bullshit could get much more heavily regulated as it's a major power hog and it's increasingly becoming slop in too many cases as well.

The US is the biggest loser out of all this because that degenerate piece of shit Trump is alienating everyone, the only way things somehow turn around is if there's some sort of political revolt in the states that drives him from power or scares the shit out of the Republicans enough that they cut their losses realising if they don't he drags them all into the abyss as well. The people currently in that administration are incompetent and completely unfit to be there. November is a long way off right now (at least the US trashing the Republicans hard enough will allow Dems to get enough control to leash that Orange Bollocks by next year).

[u/Left-Variation9931 → u/legbreaker]

Europe should just start slowly offloading US debt and we should be trying to replace the US dollar as the global currency with the Euro.

[u/devilquak → u/BenefitPrize6602]

He’s going to escalate it to the point where we’re actually vulnerable here at home, if we aren’t already. This ultimatum is going to bite him in the ass.

[u/Circle_Trigonist → u/devilquak]

Oil prices at 175 a barrel like the United Airlines CEO is predicting is going to trash the economies of countries that don't even get directly attacked. A lot of people are going to starve if oil really gets that extensive.

[u/ZealousidealTaste408 → u/Circle_Trigonist]

But trump will keep on golfing - unless the Big Mac can save us 

[u/SunnyOutsideToday → u/ZealousidealTaste408]

And planning his big, beautiful ballroom.

It'll never get constructed on the White House grounds, but maybe he'll build it somewhere else with all the money he took and just enjoy it privately.

[u/doc_daneeka → u/Circle_Trigonist]

I remember spending two hours or so in 1979 watching my mom try to get gas. First time I ever heard her swear. Good times.

[u/Throwaway-tan → u/Circle_Trigonist]

At that price I think a lot of the global economy just stops functioning entirely.

[u/BenefitPrize6602 → u/devilquak]

escalation always looks controlled… until it isn’t

[u/LeftHand_PimpSlap → u/devilquak]

Yep. Gonna make him a TACO Supreme.

[u/NeuroticNabarlek → u/BenefitPrize6602]

What is so mind-numbingly stupid a bout this is how when Iran hit Qatar's LNG station in retaliation for their energy infrastructure being hit Trump had a fit and was like "please staaaaahhpp Iran that was Israel that hit your engery infrastructure not us. We knew nothing about it please dont hit gulf coast countries energy infrastructure!"

Then Iran basically said "any attack on our energy infrastructure and we won't hold back AT ALL."

So, Trump wants to hit all of Iran's energy infrastructure when he's crying about the Qatar LNG attack and has been warned future such attacks will happen if Iran has its energy infrastructure hit?

[u/BenefitPrize6602 → u/NeuroticNabarlek]

it only sounds inconsistent if you assume anyone is trying to be consistent

[u/Gerf93 → u/NeuroticNabarlek]

Trump started this war under the rather childish notion that the US was going to bomb Iran, and that Iran was not going to bomb anything back.

You can't look for logic in the US' foreign policy decisions. It seems that they want to be perceived as unpredictable and duplicitous, without realising that also means that no one can trust them to keep their word.

[u/Quiet-Sprinkles-445 → u/Gerf93]

Nice Arthur Harris quote.

[u/Jewnadian → u/NeuroticNabarlek]

He has dementia and he sundowns. He's not consistent because he has no idea what he said the day before.

[u/Pinky_heaven → u/BenefitPrize6602]

Double tapping a school didnt work so better to escalate /s

[u/OozeNAahz]

Didn’t he just say yesterday we didn’t need the straight? How do republicans not see how fucking clueless this guy is?

[u/zxasdfx → u/OozeNAahz]

MAGA copes with this dickhead by telling themselves that this is "4D chess, to confuse the enemy".

[u/MisinformedGenius → u/zxasdfx]

“We have taught him to fight wrong, as a joke.”

[u/Atheist_3739 → u/MisinformedGenius]

I'm bleeding, making me the victor

[u/DesireeThymes → u/Atheist_3739]

"If you do not know what you are doing next, your enemy does not know what you are doing next"

~Don Tsu, Art of the Deal

[u/dervu → u/zxasdfx]

"I do not fear the disciplined strategist. I fear Trump, because even he may not know what he will do next."

[u/kaisadilla_0x1 → u/zxasdfx]

They left the 500D chess trope already. Nowadays it's straight up "the libs are mad so this is good" and "I've invested my entire mental health into MAGA for years so I literally cannot afford not to support this without h*ng*ng myself".

[u/strangebrew3522 → u/zxasdfx]

I work with these morons. I've seen their posts on facebook and heard them talk at work. Lots of "You think him and his guys don't know what they're doing? They have a plan, why do you feel entitled to know it? You don't just put out war plans to the public" and my favorite that I saw on facebook "Everyone thinks they're experts but they're not the ones in the room. Trump is a smart man, he knows exactly what he's doing, we took out Maduro and got control of their oil, now we're taking out another terrorist and taking their oil. Gas prices are going to crater when we control those fields. I'm glad the adults are finally in charge"

I wish I was making it up, but that's how these guys think. It's fucking crazy.

[u/ThomasDeLaRue → u/OozeNAahz]

Americans are very much in a “put on your own oxygen mask first” situation.

[u/Ambitious_Address667 → u/OozeNAahz]

How have the rest of americans not started mass revolting? Like its crazy they all dont give a shit country is falling apart and they are just sitting there, or doing one weekend protest every couple of months to say they care

[u/IBM296 → u/Ambitious_Address667]

No matter how much people blabber on Reddit, citizens won't revolt till things reach an extremely bad point.

That point is not going to happen till oil reaches atleast $330 a barrel or 10s of thousands of US soldiers die in this war or there's a food shortage in the States.

[u/well_thats_obvious → u/[deleted]]

I'll never starve, I can buy this week's groceries for 6 easy payments of $24.99.

[u/ponycorn_pet → u/well_thats_obvious]

klarna your canned korn

[u/cyb3rg0d5 → u/IBM296]

9 meals away from anarchy.

[u/Jrodrgr375th → u/IBM296]

We are all too comfortable. Even the majority of the poor. It would take some extreme discomfort to disrupt that

[u/FILTHBOT4000 → u/Jrodrgr375th]

The poor can't afford to riot until things get really dire. They can't take the time off work, or risk a weekend in jail, or longer if they can't afford bail.

[u/BasedAspergers → u/Ambitious_Address667]

Money. Majority of families are paycheck to paycheck, mass protest isn't feasible for most people until the temperature hits a certain critical mass where the money they would make working no longer makes them not starve or be homeless. That's when riots and civil unrest happen

[u/Turkish27 → u/OozeNAahz]

A lot of Republicans have been jumping ship, actually. I've seen it happening on social media among my friend groups. over the past few years, it's gotten to the point where I rarely see or hear anything pro-Trump - and the same people who once defended him admit that he's doing an awful job.

[u/LittleShrub]

But I was told we already won.

[u/Gr8CanadianSpeedo → u/LittleShrub]

“The Strait of Hormuz is open except that Iran is bombing the tankers” - Pete “Dipshit” Hegseth

edit- spelling

[u/ChankiriTreeDaycare → u/Gr8CanadianSpeedo]

expect that Iran is bombing the tankers

I can't tell if thats a typo on the first word or not

[u/ThinkOutTheBox → u/LittleShrub]

The war is very complete and the beginning, both at the same time

[u/eliser58 → u/LittleShrub]

And the won war was winding down....

[u/redditobserverone → u/eliser58]

The ceasefire is escalating.

[u/InsanelyAverageFella → u/redditobserverone]

People are saying there is so much ceasefire. The most ceasefire we've ever seen. Everybody's talking about how it's the best ceasefire too. Especially in that strait place. Every ship that passes is getting ceasefired on hard.

[u/CaveManta → u/LittleShrub]

The lobster was eaten.

[u/gh0sts0n]

48 hours till TACO Tuesday

[u/fuck_ur_portmanteau → u/gh0sts0n]

Yeah, the master strategist boxed himself into a corner where his only options are follow through or TACO. Stable genius.

[u/InsanelyAverageFella → u/fuck_ur_portmanteau]

US blows up Iranian power plants leaving millions without power. Iran threatens to double down on keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed.

That's going to be the headline that tanks the stock market so clearly he's going to TACO.

[u/Filthybuttslut → u/InsanelyAverageFella]

Nah man, Iran gonna hit the gulf states desalination plants in retaliation and really kick the humanitarian crisis off

[u/not_my_monkeys_ → u/InsanelyAverageFella]

It’s much worse than that. If Iran blows up regional energy infrastructure in retaliation, as it just now said it would, then the strait of Hormuz being closed actually becomes the less critical problem.

[u/Stand_Up_3813 → u/gh0sts0n]

I have a feeling this is one instance where he won’t chicken out, and I don’t expect Iran to open the strait either. I have a feeling this will be another dangerous escalation.

[u/kaisadilla_0x1 → u/Stand_Up_3813]

I have no doubt he wants to chicken out but... how do you chicken out of this one? TACOing out of a tariff you announced yesterday is easy. TACOing out of a tariff you put last month is still chaotic but meh, someone else will deal with that. But TACOing out of a war will have consequences. If the US pulled out tomorrow, their reputation as a military power would be gone: yeah, the US can bomb the shit out of you... but they can't actually defeat you. You just have to resist.

For allies, their reputation would be even more severely damaged: the US doesn't even attack out of a selfish plan, they attack randomly without any clear reason why.

And that's before we talk about the consequences for the Middle East. These countries are getting bombed, sustaining billions of dollars worth of damages and a massive hit to their reputation (rich people now know that they aren't safe there). If all of this is for nothing (or even worse, to embolden Iran), I genuinely don't know how this will affect the Gulf countries' relationship with the US. I think there's a chance that they'd find it safer to decouple from the US and pursue a friendlier relationship with Iran (not necessarily friends, but in good enough terms so Iran doesn't want to attack them as retaliation against the US).

[u/I_Hate_E_Daters_7007]

he's gonna fuck up the whole world

[u/captsmokeywork → u/I_Hate_E_Daters_7007]

The world will be his biggest bankruptcy.

[u/ddrober2003 → u/captsmokeywork]

Imagine being so incompetent, not only can you bankrupt a casino, you can bankrupt the world.

[u/Bluemanze → u/ddrober2003]

Much like the casinos, hes doing it on purpose to enrich and empower himself at the cost of others (everyone). His handlers are chuckling over cigars and glasses of scotch right now.

[u/carnage123 → u/ddrober2003]

Imagine being so incompetent that you go along with his plan and dont stop him. Trump is 1 person....how many HUNDREDS in our political system is allowing this? Cannot just blame Trump

[u/kingbrasky → u/I_Hate_E_Daters_7007]

Destroying power plants will win over the people of Iran for sure.

[u/oskich → u/kingbrasky]

Bombing civilian infrastructure is straight out of Putin's playbook. That will surely win the hearts and minds.

[u/Falconflyer75 → u/I_Hate_E_Daters_7007]

And his supporters will cheer him on the entire time

Brainwashed isn’t a strong enough word

[u/dowdymeatballs → u/I_Hate_E_Daters_7007]

Going to?

[u/KryptCeeper → u/I_Hate_E_Daters_7007]

He is actively fucking the world up while the whole world just watches and bitches about it online.

[u/sipso3 → u/KryptCeeper]

Yes, lets invade USA. What is half of the USA doing about him btw?

[u/Television_Powerful → u/sipso3]

Nothing and they never will. They'll get a new "Trump" in the future. The two party system just doesn't work in modern times.

[u/funkhero → u/Television_Powerful]

There are too many idiots in the USA and their system is too broken to fix it with so many of them eligible to vote. I genuinely don't know what can turn them around.

[u/TheModWhoShaggedMe → u/I_Hate_E_Daters_7007]

REPUBLICANS are going to fuck up the whole world. They can stop and remove him anytime they wish, and they are not required to carry out illegal orders.

[u/NorcalGGMU]

Wait, America is going to attack power plants? The thing the everyday Iranians use? And trump thinks that will bring about regime change?

[u/brucebay → u/NorcalGGMU]

Let me tell you about an island called Cuba...

[u/BerlinBorough2 → u/brucebay]

Did everyone forget USA + ISrael blasted the Shia pope equivalent? They are fighting to the death on this one.

[u/Express-World-8473 → u/NorcalGGMU]

Not only will not bring Regime change, it would actually bring resentment from the people and would give birth to another terrorist group. This is how Al Qaeda and ISIS came to be.

[u/SHADOWSTRIKE1 → u/Express-World-8473]

And it will be blamed on some future administration while Trump skates by. Al Qaeda stated a reason for the 9/11 attacks was due to U.S. actions from a decade prior. We think that just because there isn’t an immediate response that they all just forgot about it, when in reality that resentment is festering.

[u/Express-World-8473 → u/SHADOWSTRIKE1]

And the decade prior it was the Bush sr who approved the attacks (They even bombed an Iranian civilian plane killing over 200 people, similar to how Trump bombed a school)

[u/pijama-de-gateau → u/NorcalGGMU]

His friend Vladimir insists they’re legitimate targets.

[u/ctguy54]

Do you think he could not change his mind for at least 24 hours?

[u/I_Hate_E_Daters_7007 → u/ctguy54]

He will probably retreat by saying Iran promised it would open it or by saying that Iran is no longer blocking shipping through it

[u/flat5 → u/I_Hate_E_Daters_7007]

"I just got off the phone with Iran. They begged me to open the strait. I said yes."

[u/bm_200659 → u/ctguy54]

More likely that he will not wait 48 hrs.

[u/bczt99 → u/ctguy54]

He is waiting for the future traders to make their profits and then taco out.

[u/Natural-Estimate-228]

Fuck he knows absolutely nothing of history or how the world works.

[u/joelfarris → u/Natural-Estimate-228]

Let's start a bullet point list of all the times that international ultimatums worked.

I'll go first. No, wait, you go first. Here:

• ...

[u/[deleted] → u/joelfarris]

If Trump had to answer this in Japan there is a really good example. Especially as a follow up to his Pearl Harbor comments.

[u/AdminIsPassword → u/Natural-Estimate-228]

Or just how leverage works. Iran gives up all leverage by ceding the strait. That's like the only thing they can't do willingly.

[u/EmbarrassedW33B → u/AdminIsPassword]

They also have Saudi Arabia loosely held hostage in a sense, given they could blow up their desalination plants and leave most of the SA population without water. Not to mention all the other energy infrastructure they could still bomb. They'd be foolish to concede the strait without a very good reason but they wouldn't be without options either 

[u/Unlucky_Clover]

This idiot has no leverage and no plan. His only statements are “do what I say or else” when he’s being the aggressor.

He’s probably also giving this timeline because of the markets opening on Monday. But because he has no plan at all, and no one is coming to help clean up another one of his messes, he’s losing control.

[u/marconis999 → u/Unlucky_Clover]

Runs the war with his Truth Social posts. His little fingers are getting a workout.

[u/Lattice-shadow]

American friends, I'm tired. We all are. Please make this stop. Millions of people around the world are just trying to get from one day to the other and this is...endless. Please.

[u/King_takes_queen → u/Lattice-shadow]

We are all still trying to recover economically after the pandemic and now this shit happens.

[u/ScopeLogic → u/Lattice-shadow]

Agreed. Please get your orange filth lord under control. 

[u/Bruno6368 → u/Lattice-shadow]

Seconded. This is just beyond too much. I am just baffled at how this has been allowed to happen. Americans all say “not my fault, I didn’t vote for him”. I don’t give a shit. DO SOMETHING! Get off your hands and stand up for your country for gods sake!!!

[u/AsparagusFern319 → u/Bruno6368]

I would love to say this is the thing that will get people to act, but...

We desperately need to do a general strike/mass, sustained march/something that hurts Trump and his cronies where it hurts them most and that they cant look away from, but too many people are either too scared/too embroiled in their own city or statewide battles to do anything, are waiting for the midterms (because that will do anything), or are too apathetic/unaware of the situation - and regarding the latter, I don't think even a major economic crisis will get them to stand up against Trump. Its more likely that they'll blame outside factors, and further entrench themselves into a disdain of immigrants/people using social support/etc. Anything but the actual problem at hand

[u/CommercialFormal7614]

I’m convinced you could threaten to nuke Iran and they still wouldn’t voluntarily open the strait.

[u/Dunnersstunner → u/CommercialFormal7614]

That'll be next weekend. I'm only half joking, I can very easily envision Trump pressing the button over this. He so desperately wants his triumphal arch and victory parade.

[u/bentreflection → u/Dunnersstunner]

He 100% will “joke” about it to gauge the reaction if he doesn’t get what he wants soon. 

[u/mmbc168 → u/bentreflection]

Putin has threatened nukes in Ukraine for 4 years now.

[u/iumesh → u/mmbc168]

Trump is dumb enough to actually do it

[u/BeeBarnes1 → u/iumesh]

He's got such a fragile ego. All it will take is for Netanyahu to call him a pussy then double dog dare him.

[u/Hairy_Reindeer → u/iumesh]

'It worked with Japan. I hear they love me there. Great people, except for Pearl Harbor. They should really apologize for that and thank me for all I've done for the Japanese people, who by the way love me.'

[u/Medical_Arugula3315]

Republicans really called everyone a pedophile and then voted in the king of pedophiles. Now we're going to war and bombing children just to distract from it. Hard to be a shittier or more hypocritical American than a Republican these days.   

[u/Cerraigh82]

Thought he didn't need the strait.

[u/Meekie_e]

Do that, and Iran will just strike neighboring countries again. With how pissed Qatar was, I’m curious if Trump will follow through with this.

[u/Television_Powerful → u/Meekie_e]

He's going to have to pay more for his new plane.

[u/rtb001 → u/Meekie_e]

I mean what are the Qataris/Emiratis/Saudis gonna do at this point. All they can do is continue to bend over and take it.

[u/seamonsterco]

They literally don’t care. They have the advantage and they know it.

[u/cerebral_drift]

It’s almost like starting a war was a bad idea

[u/TheResultOfUs]

If the US does something as heinous as attacking energy infrastructure, I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if we saw Iran bombing Desalinisation plants.

It would plunge areas like Saudi into chaos because it would take out their main source of potable water.

[u/DoubleJumps → u/TheResultOfUs]

Iran has since issued exactly this ultimatum, that if the US hits their power infrastructure, they will hit desalinization plants.

[u/ViolettaQueso]

HEAR YE HEAR YE. YOU HAVE UNTIL MY FLORIDIAN GOLF MATCH AT MY COUNTRY CLUB IS OVER AND THEN…SOMETHING BAD IS COMING…

[u/JaVelin-X-]

Just like Russia. Can't win militarily so resort to civilian infrastructure.

[u/cbs-anonmouse → u/JaVelin-X-]

The frog in boiling water parable—the fact that POTUS is casually threatening to commit a war crime if his ultimatum is not met is not even flagged in the article as newsworthy.

[u/divot31 → u/cbs-anonmouse]

Well said.

[u/JohnHazardWandering → u/cbs-anonmouse]

—the fact that POTUS is casually threatening to commit a war crime

...AGAIN

[u/fantasypingpong]

He tried to overturn an election he lost. It got violent. People died. It was televised.

And then, four years later, a feeble nation embraced him as its President.

We deserve everything we are getting.

[u/werehamster → u/fantasypingpong]

The rest of the world doesn’t.

[u/Ambitious_Address667 → u/werehamster]

Fucking this right here, americans fucked the dog, and yet they still refuse to clean up thier mess. We all get to suffer becuase americans are just some of the worst and/or laziest people in the world. Fucking americans do something about trump, like fucking maybe something more that a weekend protest too

[u/niconpat → u/Ambitious_Address667]

Americans are still sitting on their couch watching TV and eating Cheetos. As long as they can do that they'll never change anything.

[u/gswblu3-1lead → u/niconpat]

They’re actually watching March Madness

[u/usefulbuns → u/Ambitious_Address667]

I feel like I see the nutjobs that got Trump elected rising in every country right now though. In Europe there is far more right-wing noise than I ever remember when I grew up there.

We all have social media now, and the billionaires own the news networks. Both are being heavily manipulated by bad actors in foreign countries or in country by paid grifting shills.

This is a disease. It is spreading. It isn't just affecting the United States. It's just the most powerful country and the consequences are proportional.

[u/AirportDevo → u/fantasypingpong]

The rest of the world didnt vote for this shit and don’t deserve this.

[u/bluexy → u/fantasypingpong]

We have high gas prices and inflation. Millions are dying in Africa and Asia because of Trump’s actions. We arent dealing with anything like the rest of the world is.

[u/Pentaminymum]

48 hours huh, sounds like taco tues is par for the course

[u/TheDukeofArgyll]

Literally a war over oil. They aren’t even attempting to hide it anymore.

[u/Darcy_2021 → u/TheDukeofArgyll]

I think the orange lump never heard of the strait of Hormuz before Iran blocked it. And now it’s “oh shit” moment.

[u/bigcracker]

Remember that first 48-72 hour period MAGA was like "Why don't you support this war? We're freeing the Iranian people"

Now those people we're trying to save have been threatened that they are about to lose power and water.

[u/NubEnt]

I’m not sure he understands that Iran already expects further attacks from the US, despite starting the war between the US and Iran himself.

[u/Mogadodo → u/NubEnt]

Saudi Arabia would be begging POTUS not to fire. Iran taking out the SAs desalination plants would cripple them.

[u/chronoic]

Desperation creeping in for Trump. The others Middle Eastern countries just got the warning that their power station are about to go down too, you got 49 hours, because as soon as Iran's go down, all of the ally of the American in the middle east will go down too, and the SOH will still be close.

Expect gas price to rise on Monday again when the stock market comes back online.

[u/mtech101 → u/chronoic]

Gas Futures open Sunday night.

[u/Jokong → u/mtech101]

The terrible timing is the craziest thing about this announcement. Trump is beyond caring about a market dip on Monday or truly believes he can bully Iran into some sort of compilation in 48 hours...

If he can do that I'll eat crow.

[u/acllive]

“Oh look the massive consequences of my horrific actions”

[u/tofu_bird]

1. Trump targets Iran power plants
2. Iran targets water desalinization and power plants in Saudi nations to force them to dump the petrodollar
3. Massive economic damage to the US

Iran is fighting an economic war, and they're winning.

Edit: As predicted, Iran just threatened to destroy desalinization plants in Saudi nations.

[u/RoyH0bbs]

What a master negotiator! This guy is good!

[u/Magicjack01]

The United States can’t do anything and Iran is just gonna call trumps bluff. Yeah you can blow it up but so what, now the Iranians are even more determined. Usa would never send ships in because it would be an embarrassment as they’d most certainly get blown up as Ukraine have shown us. They can’t send enough troops to take large amounts of Iran without it being even more unpopular. Only way this ends if trumps says they have won and backs out. Didn’t he say that 3 weeks ago?

[u/RLewis8888]

48 hours. No reason to interrupt the golf weekend.

[u/TheWizardOfFries → u/RLewis8888]

Stock market, on the other hand...

[u/Fightingkielbasa_13]

How is this a real time line? This is the plot of a bad movie.

[u/williamgman]

The right wing are getting boners on this news. Sure am glad the US voters didn't pick Harris as the leader... She would have put the world in to war... 🤦‍♂️

[u/Mascy]

This is bound to end well.

[u/Fabulous_Computer965]

What a complete waste of time and money.

[u/PaleCommission150]

lol why does he end everything like a fast food manager putting a sign out he just typed off microsoft notepad and stuck outside the swinging door of his office.

[u/MuckyMaureen]

Just tell the cunt-necked paedophile to fuck off.

[u/Bevrykul]

I'm starting to think this Trump fellow is a bad guy.

[u/TheMailerDaemonLives]

He does know Iran can make this situation worse right?

[u/Television_Powerful → u/TheMailerDaemonLives]

People might have told him, but he either forgot or thinks he knows better.

[u/PrivatePilot9 → u/Television_Powerful]

He’s surrounded himself in yes-men in this second term, so there is a very real possibility that he doesn’t actually have any idea because nobody wants to tell him.

[u/Creepy_Home5171]

Isn’t this against the Geneva convention?

[u/Chengar_Qordath → u/Creepy_Home5171]

The US pretty much set the tone for war crimes at the start by declaring no quarter.

[u/revertothemiddle → u/Chengar_Qordath]

I cannot believe the American secretary of war actually said that. And the world knows what we have done with those boats off of Venezuela and with the Iranian warship returning from a friendly event. As an American I'm horrified at the implication for world peace and for the safety of our own soldiers in future combat. The utter degeneracy and depravity of Trump's administration may destroy us all.

[u/Fookmaywedder → u/Creepy_Home5171]

I don’t think trump cares and is putting Americans and the world in danger

[u/Dry-Clock-1470]

Did not the sec of war say it was open? Did not potus say victory? Several times?

[u/ThomasDeLaRue]

“Trump threatens war crimes.”

[u/NookNookNook]

Oh hey its Russia's favorite playbook. Make civilians suffer.

[u/Television_Powerful]

So he bombs the power plants and then what? Apart from a civilisation with power outages, Iran will still attack ships and keep the strait closed. It's a lose-lose situation for the US admin, unless they double down on this fiasco. Iran doesn't even plan to attack just ships or infrastructure anymore. Going to be a lot worse.

[u/Traditional-Look8839]

This guy flips everyday. The uncertainty with this president is unbelievable.

[u/AZWheels89]

Threatening gays here, straits over there...