President Donald Trump returned to threatening Iran’s power plants and bridges in a Truth Social post Sunday morning on the eve of what he called new peace talks and following a report that suggested Trump’s wild social media warnings are part of a negotiating tactic. (Update: Trump said the U.S. attacked and took over an Iranian cargo ship.)
The president said negotiators would return to Islamabad, Pakistan for another round of peace talks on Monday.
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In the same post, Trump accused Iran of violating the ceasefire between the two countries after it began firing on ships crossing the Strait of Hormuz again on Saturday.
The president said negotiators would arrive in Islamabad for another round of peace talks on Monday, days before the two-week ceasefire is set to expire.
The message followed a Wall Street Journal report that detailed how Trump was using the social media posts without consulting his national security team, with advisors telling the newspaper his post earlier this month threatening to destroy Iran’s “whole civilization” was “improvisational.”
Other posts, including his explicit threat posted on Easter Sunday that ended with the phrase “Praise be to Allah,” were part of his tactic to seem “unstable and insulting” to bring the Iranians to the negotiating table, according to the report.
The same report also detailed Trump’s fears of sending ground troops to Iran, pointing out to his advisors the Iran Hostage Crisis in 1979 cost former President Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party the 1980 elections.
The same instinct has so far stopped the president from sending troops to Kharg Island, the Persian Gulf island Iran uses to export oil, according to the report, concerned too many U.S. troops could be killed or injured.
Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz, which sees an estimated 20% of the world’s oil, after the war broke out, threatening ships that pass through the strait with mines and drone strikes. The Trump administration initially demanded Iran fully reopen the waterway, but eventually announced a full blockade of Iran’s ports. Iran said it would reopen the strait on Friday after Israel and Lebanon announced a ceasefire, but quickly closed it again on Saturday, Reuters reported, citing a broadcast from Iran’s navy to commercial vessels.
Trump’s post on Sunday was the first confirmation from the U.S. side that peace negotiations would continue this week, after a previous round failed to produce a full peace deal. Trump initially told ABC and MS NOW the negotiators would include special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law—but would not include Vice President JD Vance. Later, the White House told CNN said Vance would join the negotiators again. A White House official told the network “things changed” since Trump’s first remarks.
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