Within hours of the expiration of his ultimatum in Iran, Donald Trump tipped the crisis into a register rarely reached by an American president. This Tuesday, on Truth Social, he did not only threaten new strikes. He wrote that « a whole civilization will die tonight, » that it can « never be brought back, » that he did not want this scenario but that he thought it likely that it would be accomplished overnight. In the same message, he added that with what he presented as a « complete and total change of regime », « different, smarter and less radicalized » spirits could perhaps allow something « revolutionaryly wonderful. » He further claimed that the evening would be « one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the world », before concluding by saying that « 47 years of extortion, corruption and death will finally end » and blessing « the great people of Iran ». In other words, the American president has articulated in the same text the threat of the erasure of a civilization, the idea of a change of regime, the promise of historical destruction and a formula of final blessing addressed to the intended people.
This publication came at a time when strikes were reported on the Iranian island of Kharg, the central point of the country’s oil industry. According to agencies and several international media, the United States targeted military targets on the island, while an American official claimed that the oil infrastructure itself had not been affected. The mere fact that Kharg entered the military sequence was enough to make prices jump. In the middle of the day, the U.S. WTI earned more than 2%, with peaks above 3%, while the Brent remained above $110. The market has read these strikes for what they represented: not an isolated incident, but a direct signal sent to the Iranian energy heart a few hours from a deadline set by Washington as a cuteret.
Trump’s message, sentence by sentence
The text published by Donald Trump deserves to be returned in its political entirety, as its structure illuminates the moment. First, it announces the disappearance of « an entire civilization » in the night itself, and specifies that it could never be restored. Then he says he doesn’t want this, but adds that it will probably happen. Then he opens another perspective: in his view, since the country would now experience a « complete and total change of regime », it would be possible that more intelligent and less radicalized minds would create something exceptional. He then says that it will be » tonight » if this is to happen, and that it is one of the most important in world history. Finally, he presents Iran’s recent history as forty-seven years of extortion, corruption and death that will end, before concluding with a blessing formula for the Iranian people. In the text itself, the promise of annihilation, the horizon of overthrow of the regime and the idea of a historical refoundation are therefore linked.
This message cannot be reduced to a simple verbal outrage. It is part of a broader sequence where Trump also threatened to destroy Iranian bridges and power plants in a few hours if Tehran did not accept its deadline. According to several media and agencies, he said the day before that all bridges in the country could be « deathed » and that all power plants could be put out of use, burned, exploded and rendered unusable. This framework gives the word « civilization » a concrete meaning. It does not refer to cultural abstraction. It refers to vital infrastructure, electrical networks, roads, conditions of collective existence. It is precisely for this reason that the presidential publication immediately shifted the debate to the law of war and to the question of possible war crimes or even a policy of destruction directed against the living conditions of a civilian population.
Kharg, the hot spot hit before expiry
Kharg’s choice wasn’t annoid. The island has been the main export terminal for Iranian crude oil for years. News agencies point out that most of Iran’s oil exports are transiting there, making it a key point in the country’s economy. By targeting military targets on this island, Washington did not touch a secondary theatre. He introduced the possibility of direct confrontation as close to the Iranian energy lung. Even in the absence of an official breach of oil facilities, the strategic message is clear: Kharg is now included in the immediate geography of the escalation.
Market reaction followed almost instantly. The WTI contract for delivery in May took over 2 per cent, with a temporary peak of over 3 per cent, while the Brent for delivery in June also remained on the rise. This tension comes in a context where the Darmuz Strait remains at the centre of the crisis, Trump’s ultimatum focusing precisely on the complete reopening of the maritime passage. The oil market has therefore integrated two data at the same time: on one side, a military deadline set by Washington; on the other, strikes in the immediate vicinity of the main Iranian exporting node. The combination of the two is enough to raise the global risk premium.
The signal is even stronger than Kharg is not just a production or storage site. It’s a traffic link. In an energy crisis, destabilizing a traffic link is enough to cause effects far beyond the site itself. Carriers, insurers, refiners and importing States react to the risk, not just to the damage already found. In other words, the strike on Kharg, even limited to military targets according to Washington, has already produced an overall economic effect. It brought Iranian oil straight into the final phase of the American ultimatum.
A language that brings the law of war to the forefront
The other highlight of the day is legal. By explicitly threatening a country’s bridges and power plants, and then talking about the death of a civilization, Donald Trump has placed notions usually reserved for international investigations and courts at the centre of public debate. Several analyses published in recent days by reference media and international law experts recall that civil infrastructure is protected by the Geneva Conventions, unless it becomes specific military objectives. The International Committee of the Red Cross recalls that attacks must respect the principles of distinction, proportionality and precaution, and that the goods essential for the survival of the civilian population cannot be targeted as such.
In this context, the announced destruction of electricity grids, bridges and other essential infrastructure can be considered a war crime if it is aimed at civilian property without demonstrated military necessity, or if the expected damage to the civilian population is clearly disproportionate. Several media sources have also reported that Trump, questioned about this risk, has unhesitatingly dismissed the idea that these threats may be subject to war crimes. But the question does not disappear because a head of state sweeps it away. On the contrary, it is more important when it itself announces in advance the extent of destruction against essential infrastructure.
The question of crimes against humanity is even more serious. The Rome Statute includes acts committed as part of a widespread or systematic attack against a civilian population. Among the acts listed are extermination, which includes the deliberate imposition of living conditions designed to destroy part of a population. The legal threshold is high and depends on the facts, intent and actual extent of the acts committed. But when the President of the United States explains that « a civilization » will die at night and links this perspective to the destruction of bridges and power stations, he brings his own language into the field of the most serious qualifications of international criminal law.
The Gulf warns about an uncontrollable swing
As the deadline approached, regional capitals began to raise their tone. Qatar warned that the Middle East was very close to a point where climbing could no longer be controlled. His spokesman, Majed al-Ansari, explained that if the current momentum continued, the region would enter an out-of-control situation. This alert is not merely diplomatic prudence. It comes from a Gulf State that directly measures the risk of a war against infrastructure on energy networks, airports, ports, electricity, water and economic security on the entire peninsula.
Tehran, for its part, threatened actions that could deprive the United States and its allies of oil and gas for years. The Revolutionary Guards have stated that they have so far shown restraint in the name of the good neighbour, but have affirmed that this restraint has now been lifted. They also warned that if the « red lines » were crossed, the response would go beyond the immediate regional framework. Again, the logic is clear: an attack on Iranian infrastructure would not remain confined to Iran. It could lead to an expanded war against the region’s energy infrastructure.
This perspective explains the extreme nervousness observed in the markets. An energy crisis of this magnitude is never limited to direct belligerents. It affects importing countries, global supply chains, transport costs, inflation and already fragile states’ public finances. The WTI leap is therefore not just a financial indicator. It is also an immediate measure of the fear that an American president may place at the centre of his strategy the announced destruction of a modern society by crushing its vital infrastructure.
An evening under the sign of erasure
The singularity of the moment ultimately lies in this: Donald Trump did not just formulate a requirement. He chose to express Tuesday night’s deadline as an alternative between submission and erasure. His message is not about a military victory, an imperfect agreement or an imposed ceasefire. He speaks of a civilization called to die in the night, of a change of regime presented as already total, and then of a possible form of political renaissance once this rupture has been consumed. The structure of the presidential text therefore makes three levels coexist: the threat of destruction, the announcement of the overthrow, and the promise of a post supposedly better.
This gives the Kharg sequence its particular weight. The strikes on the island are not only another pressure in an already open war. They occur at the exact moment when the American president describes the night ahead as the night of the possible disappearance of a civilization. The rapprochement of the two facts, one military and the other verbal, transforms the crisis. It is no longer simply a strategic arm of iron around Hormuz or oil. It is a confrontation in which the head of the US executive himself chose the language of annihilation.
As the ultimatum came to an end, Trump’s formula became the main event of the day. The strikes on Kharg are the operational side. The oil surge is the first global effect. And international law, already invoked by lawyers, NGOs and regional diplomacy, is now the immediate horizon. For when the announced destruction no longer targets only military objectives, but bridges, electricity, civilian life and, in the words of the American president, a « whole civilization », the vocabulary of war crime and crime against humanity ceases to be peripheral. It comes to the heart of the story.
