NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – The clock is ticking for Iran to make a deal President Trump likes.
“They have a period of, well, till tomorrow at 8 o’clock,” Trump said at a Monday afternoon press conference.
If his Monday 8 p.m. (EDT/7 p.m. CDT) deadline is not met, Trump said the U.S. military will target Iran’s critical infrastructure.
“And after that, they’re going to have no bridges, they’re going to have no power plants … stone ages, yeah,” he said.
Rep. Troy Carter (D-Louisiana) of New Orleans said such a move would be troubling.
“When a president talks about the bombing and electric grid and infrastructure that not only services hospitals and schools — it may have some use for the military, but the greater good is for the community — the president teeters into what would be considered, by most scholars, war crimes,” Carter said.
Professor Chris Fettweis, a Tulane University international relations and foreign policy expert, said targeting such infrastructure would definitely constitute a war crime.
“Well, it’s rare that presidents come out and just announce war crimes before they happen,” Fettweis said. “But these would be war crimes.”
He said there was a time when such a threat from an American president would be unthinkable.
“That is directly targeting civilian infrastructure and that would be a war crime. Now, is anything going to happen? Are they going to come arrest them? No. But, once upon a time, Americans used to take pride in the notion that its leaders didn’t commit war crimes,” Fettweis said.
Trump on Monday essentially doubled-down on a profane threat to Iran posted to his Truth Social platform early Easter Sunday.
President Trump posted an expletive-laden threat against Iran to his Truth Social platform early Easter morning (April 5).(WVUE-Fox 8)
In it, he threatened Iran’s power plants and bridges and said, “Open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell.” He ended the post, “Praise be to Allah.”
A reporter asked Trump why he used such profanity in the post.
“Only to make my point,” he said. “I think you’ve heard it before.”
Carter criticized Trump’s language.
“And even those who don’t practice Easter know that Sunday, in general, is reserved for peace,” Carter said. “To see a president use such reckless expletives was unfortunate. But, let’s go a little bit deeper than that. War is a very serious matter.”
Fettweis also took issue with Trump’s wording.
“This was an Easter Sunday message that was an absolute national embarrassment,” Fettweis said. “But he thinks it’s part of his brilliant negotiation strategy.”
Carter said he thinks Trump’s post was beneath a U.S. president.
“Foreign leaders are not impressed by how loud you can yell or about how many expletives you can use,” Carter said. “This is not presidential. This is not American. This is not good for our country.”
The national average for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. has risen to $4.11. Fettweis says it could go higher if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed much longer.
“Higher fuel costs, higher jet fuel costs, higher food prices, super-high fertilizer prices. It is an economic choke point for the world,” Fettweis said. “It’s like the world having the Strait of Hormuz clogged is like having an artery clogged, and the whole world economy is going to have a heart attack quite soon if we don’t get that opened up.”
Fox 8 asked Louisiana Republican Senators Bill Cassidy and John Kennedy, as well as Republican House Majority Leader Steve Scalise and Rep. Julia Letlow for comment on Trump’s deadline for Iran and his Easter morning post, but they did not respond.
See a spelling or grammar error in our story? Click Here to report it. Please include the headline.
Subscribe to the Fox 8 YouTube channel.
Copyright 2026 WVUE. All rights reserved.