President Donald Trump has claimed that the Iranian people want the US to unleash its military power on the country, as he threatened to wipe out ‘every power plant’ amid the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
The narrow and vital waterway – used as a high-volume shipping route – has been virtually closed since the war broke out on February 28, with Iran vowing to block ‘enemy’ ships from getting through ever since.
The commander-in-chief has made a number of threats over the past few days aimed at getting the Iranian regime to reach a deal to reopen the important trade route by Tuesday evening.
‘If they don’t come through, if they want to keep it closed, they’re going to lose every power plant and every other plant they have in the whole country,’ he told the Wall Street Journal on Sunday.
‘If they don’t do something by Tuesday evening, they won’t have any power plant and they won’t have any bridges standing,’ Trump then vowed.
Trump was then asked if he was concerned whether Iran‘s 93 million citizens would suffer if the power plants and bridges were struck.
‘No, they want us to do it,’ Trump argued, adding that Iranians were ‘living in hell.’
He then claimed that the Iranian people are scared to protest in public and risk being killed by the regime.
‘The only reason they’re not on the street is they’ve killed 45,000 people,’ Trump said of the Iranian regime. ‘When they go in the street, they get shot.’
President Donald Trump argued on Sunday that the Iranian people want the US to unleash its military power on the country
He said Iranians are afraid to take to the streets to protest the regime out of fear they would be shot. Women holding Iranian flags are seen at a pro-government gathering in Tehran on Sunday
Trump had earlier threatened to attack Iranian bridges and power plants in a bizarre Easter message
The president’s threat came just hours after he told Fox News‘ chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst he was ‘considering blowing everything up and taking control of the oil.’
He had also threatened to attack Iranian bridges and power plants in a bizarre Easter message earlier on Sunday.
‘There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy b*****ds, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah. President DONALD J. TRUMP.’
The president previously said in his address to the American people last week that he planned to hit Iran hard over the next two to three weeks.
Days later, US-Israeli airstrikes destroyed Iran’s tallest bridge, killing eight people.
The B1 bridge, which links Iran’s capital with the western city of Karaj, was targeted in two waves of strikes on Thursday after Trump said he would bomb Tehran ‘back to the Stone Age’.
The second attack on the nearly 450-foot structure took place while rescue forces were at the scene helping at least 95 injured people, Iranian state media claimed.
Amid Trump’s threats, Iran’s parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf urged the US president to further escalate the war.
‘Your reckless moves are dragging the United States into a living hell for every single family, and our whole region is going to burn,’ he wrote on social media.
Sayed Reza Salihi-Amiri, the Iranian culture minister, also branded Trump an ‘unstable, delusional figure’.
But after a US airman was left in hiding for nearly two days, administration officials said the president has become more eager to apply even more pressure on the Iranians.
US-Israeli air strikes destroyed Iran’s tallest bridge, killing eight people
![Iranian state media released images of a search and rescue plane, which it claimed it shot down, though the US military says it 'blew [them] up' themselves](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2026/04/06/02/107666215-15708433-Iranian_state_media_released_images_of_a_search_and_rescue_plane-a-17_1775437431635.jpg)
Iranian state media released images of a search and rescue plane, which it claimed it shot down, though the US military says it ‘blew [them] up’ themselves
Pictured: The ejected seat from the US aircraft as published in Iranian media
The airman, alongside a pilot, had been in an F-15 fighter jet, which was shot down over a remote area of Iran on Friday.
The pilot had safely ejected and was rescued by two military helicopters the same day, but the second crew member, a highly-respected colonel, had remained missing.
He was then forced to evade pursuing Iranians for almost two days while Reaper drones overhead protected him from danger.
Armed with only a handgun to protect him and injured from his ejection from the F-15, the colonel hid from danger before making a daring dash to the rescue site as hundreds of special forces personnel searched the area for him in a complex rescue mission.
It involved deceiving Iranian forces by having the CIA spread word that US forces already found the colonel, as he continued to hide in the mountains, reaching elevations of around 7,000 feet.
At the same time, Iranian forces put a $60,000 bounty on the pilot’s ‘head’, as they urged locals near the crash site to seize the American.
But US warplanes fired bombs and weapons to keep the Iranians away, as soldiers scoured the area for the missing pilot.
As US forces closed in on the stranded officer, a firefight broke out with Iranian troops.
When they made the extraction, two of the five rescue planes became stuck in a remote airfield inside Iran and were blown up by special forces to avoid being captured by the enemy.
Three rescue planes flew out of Iran to Kuwait, and the mission was completed just before midnight.
Trump touted the operation late Saturday night as ‘one of the most daring Search and Rescue Operations in US History’.
He said this was the first time in military memory that two US Pilots have been rescued, separately, deep in ‘Enemy Territory’, as he defiantly said that no American warfighter would ever be left behind.
He said dozens of aircraft armed with ‘the most lethal weapons in the World’ were sent by the US military to retrieve him.
‘This brave warrior was behind enemy lines in the treacherous mountains of Iran, being hunted down by our enemies, who were getting closer and closer by the hour,’ Trump added in a Truth Social post.
He added that both operations were concluded ‘without a SINGLE American killed, or even wounded’.
Iranian media reported five people were killed in strikes during the US rescue operation.
