WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- President Donald Trump threatened a "whole civilization will die tonight" if Iran does not make a deal by 8 p.m. EDT on April 7. His comments come as Pope Leo XVI has urgently called for peace and set up a prayer vigil for April 11, the eve of Divine Mercy Sunday.
In a post the same day on his social media website, Truth Social, Trump said, "A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will."
"However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?" Trump said. "We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption, and death, will finally end. God Bless the Great People of Iran!"
Trump made similar comments at an April 6 press briefing at the White House, telling journalists, "The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night."
The U.S. and Israel initiated combat operations against Iran Feb. 28 that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and other key Iranian political and military officials in the war's beginning.
Trump has argued the regime presented grave nuclear threats, and pointed to "the specter of nuclear blackmail" in an April 1 address about the conflict from the White House.
In response to the attacks, Iran effectively shut down the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil trade route, by striking ships there. The closure of the strait has led to a significant spike in energy costs.
Polls conducted throughout the first month of the conflict -- dubbed Operation Epic Fury -- show most U.S. adults are opposed to it, with energy costs one of the factors driving that opposition.
Speaking in Hungary April 7, Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, suggested the Iranians are engaged in "economic terrorism" and said, "We've got tools in our toolkit that we so far haven't decided to use."
In reference to the president's post, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote on X that "This is an extremely sick person."
"Each Republican who refuses to join us in voting against this wanton war of choice owns every consequence of whatever the hell this is," he said.
Democrats in Congress have tried and failed in both chambers to advance a war powers resolution that would have curtailed Trump's military actions in Iran. A resolution that would have expressed the disapproval of Congress failed in the Senate on March 4 and the House on March 5 along mostly party lines.
In an interview with "Face the Nation" taped April 2 and that aired on Easter, Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio of the U.S. Archdiocese for the Military Services questioned the legitimacy of America's war in Iran, arguing that the war is likely not justified under Catholic teaching on legitimate defense by military means, sometimes called just war theory.
Archbishop Broglio said that under the just war theory, he was concerned the U.S. military action in Iran was "compensating for a threat" before the threat "is actually realized."
In his Easter comments, Pope Leo issued a sharp rebuke of war. He said, "In the light of Easter, let us allow ourselves to be amazed by Christ!"
"Let us allow our hearts to be transformed by his immense love for us! Let those who have weapons lay them down! Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace! Not a peace imposed by force, but through dialogue! Not with the desire to dominate others, but to encounter them!" he said April 5.
Pope Leo also said he will host a prayer vigil for peace in St. Peter's Basilica on Saturday, April 11.
"On this day of celebration, let us abandon every desire for conflict, domination, and power, and implore the Lord to grant his peace to a world ravaged by wars and marked by a hatred and indifference that make us feel powerless in the face of evil," he said. "To the Lord we entrust all hearts that suffer and await the true peace that only he can give."
