Trump Threatens to Wipe Out 90 Million Iranians if Tehran Retaliates in Hormuz War
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Sep 10
Trump Threatens to Wipe Out 90 Million Iranians if Tehran Retaliates in Hormuz War
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 10
Summary
Fox News interview remarks from Donald Trump revived his warning that Iran would be “totally wiped out as a country” if it retaliates for recent US air strikes during fighting around the Strait of Hormuz.
The threat fits a pattern from the past six months: Trump has repeatedly vowed to destroy bridges, power plants and other Iranian infrastructure, language the article says would amount to attacks on civilian targets.
April 7 marked the sharpest earlier escalation, when Trump posted that “a whole civilization will die tonight” before a ceasefire was announced; the episode drew condemnation from the UN secretary-general and the pope.
The article argues those repeated threats now generate less outrage, reflecting wider desensitization to mass violence after Gaza and a broader erosion of international legal norms.
How will global energy markets survive if the Strait of Hormuz remains paralyzed by unprecedented military escalation?
Could the normalization of targeting civilian infrastructure permanently dismantle the international laws designed to protect non-combatants?
What happens to global accountability when superpowers actively dismantle the international courts designed to uphold justice?
The 2026 U.S.-Iran War: Humanitarian Catastrophe, Global Economic Shock, and the Collapse of International Order
Overview
The 2026 U.S.-Iran war began with a joint U.S.-Israeli strike on Tehran that killed Iran’s Supreme Leader, triggering Hezbollah’s missile attacks on Israel and a fierce Israeli assault on Beirut. This escalation led to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, causing global oil prices to soar and sparking a worldwide economic crisis. As gas prices rose sharply in the U.S., public support for the war plummeted. Meanwhile, U.S. and Israeli airstrikes on Iranian refineries created toxic 'black rain,' and millions of civilians were displaced, deepening the humanitarian disaster across the region.