President Trump has amplified the tone and volume of his threats around the Strait of Hormuz in recent days, even as indications from the region show more ships are passing through the crucial waterway at the behest of Iran's regime.
After weeks of ultimatums, the bellicose rhetoric from the White House reached a new level on Sunday. In a Truth Social post, the president used an expletive, appeared to mock Islam, and called the Iranian regime's leaders "crazy bastards" while promising anew to bomb bridges and power plants.
Trump doubled down on that threat Monday, saying that “the entire country could be taken out in one night and that night might be tomorrow night.”
At another point, Trump added that he doesn’t expect his latest deadline of Tuesday to shift and that he is not worried his proposed actions targeting civilian architecture would constitute a war crime.
"I hope I don't have to do it,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, developments on the ground gave observers and markets hope on Monday that some economic pressure could be easing. Iran announced that Iraq has a "special exemption" to ship through the strait, and more oil appeared set to flow to Asia.
As it now stands, traffic in the strait has climbed to the highest levels since the early days of the war. Tracking service Marine Traffic offered in a new analysis Monday that traffic "showed a noticeable uptick" over the weekend.
The service said that 10 vessels crossed on Saturday and 11 on Sunday — far below the 100-plus ships that passed on an average day before the war, but still a notable improvement from March totals.
This split-screen of sorts between apocalyptic rhetoric and some optimism also came as the president offered another day for ceasefire talks to play out amid signals of diplomatic engagement.
A last-ditch discussion of a potential ceasefire is underway that Trump said Monday he had reviewed, calling it “a significant step” but not yet enough to stop the fighting.
The president added he thinks the Iranians are negotiating in good faith, but if they don’t make a deal "they are going to have no bridges, they are going to have no power plants” and that the only way to seal a deal is opening the strait to "free traffic of oil and everything else."
