Fed-up Republicans have called for President Donald Trump’s removal after the “unhinged super villain’s” threat to destroy Iran.
The 79-year-old president started his Tuesday morning by warning that he would wipe out a “whole civilization” if Tehran didn’t open up the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow shipping lane that connects Persian Gulf oil to the rest of the world and a major sticking point to a cessation in the conflict.
Iran has choked the Strait as leverage over the U.S., prompting Trump to set a deadline for its reopening—8 p.m. Eastern on Tuesday. In a last-ditch attempt to force the regime to play ball as the deadline approaches, Trump posted on Truth Social, “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will.”
The bloodthirsty rhetoric has shocked traditional critics and allies alike. “25TH AMENDMENT!!!” declared Trump cheerleader-turned-critic Marjorie Taylor Greene.
The former Georgia congresswoman added, “Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness.”
Alex Jones, the right-wing conspiracy theorist podcaster and Trump devotee, was also among the big names to break from the president. “WAR CRIME ALERT!!” he said in an X post on Tuesday. Repeating Trump’s message, he added: “The definition of genocide is destroying an entire civilization/people! Trump literally sounds like an unhinged super villain from a Marvel comic movie.”
Jones concluded: “This IS NOT WHAT WE VOTED FOR!!!”
Anthony Scaramucci, the financier who served as Trump’s White House communications director for just 10 days in 2017, tagged Senate Majority Leader John Thune in a post on X, asking: “Are you serious right now? Are you not going to denounce this? Are you not going to seek the removal of this crazy person? This is your responsibility that is what Article I of the Constitution is about.”
Article I of the Constitution gives Congress impeachment authority, while the 25th Amendment gives the vice president and majority of the cabinet the power to declare the president unable to fulfill his duties, thereby transferring executive power to the vice president.
“Wake up: he is calling for A NUCLEAR STRIKE. Seek his removal immediately,” he added in a follow-up. He added that the statement should be “denounced by all,” and suggested that the tide is turning for Trump after “losing” Jones and Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host and ally who is now openly critical of Trump’s war.
Bill Kristol, who served as chief of staff to the vice president in the George H. W. Bush administration and was a Republican for 40 years before switching to an independent in 2021, has been fiercely critical of Trump since then. “Impeach Trump,” he wrote in reaction to the president’s latest post.
Conservative podcaster Candace Owens also joined the revolt. “The 25th amendment needs to be invoked. He is a genocidal lunatic. Our Congress and military need to intervene. We are beyond madness,” she wrote.
Infowars host Alex Jones also called for his ouster after a similarly wild threat on Sunday. In that post, Trump raged: “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F--kin’ Strait, you crazy b-----ds, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
“How do we 25th Amendment his a--?” Jones reacted during Monday’s episode of The Alex Jones Show.
