On Easter Sunday, Trump Dropped an F-Bomb and Threatened to Bomb Civilian Power Plants. Legal Analysts Called It Telegraphing War Crimes.

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Here is the exact text of what the President of the United States posted to his social media platform on Easter Sunday morning, April 5, 2026, at 8:03am:

Let's take this one piece at a time, because there's a lot happening in a single post.

"Power Plant Day" and "Bridge Day"

Trump is threatening to bomb civilian power plants and bridges. Not military installations. Not weapons depots. Power plants and bridges — infrastructure that serves civilian populations, provides electricity, enables people to move food and medicine, and keeps water treatment systems running. Targeting civilian infrastructure is not a gray area in international law. The Geneva Conventions and their Additional Protocols prohibit attacks on objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population. Power plants are explicitly included. Legal analyst Ankush Khardori, a former federal prosecutor, appeared on air within the hour and said flatly: "We have the president of the United States basically declaring his intent to commit war crimes." United Nations officials called it "running out of language to condemn." Iran's response was to threaten symmetric infrastructure attacks on Gulf states and Israel.

This is not a new threat in isolation. Trump previously threatened on March 21 to bomb Iran's power plants if the Strait of Hormuz wasn't opened within 48 hours. He did not follow through. He extended the deadline. He threatened again. He extended again. On Saturday April 4 he said "all hell will reign down" — using "reign" instead of "rain," which is not a homophone — and set a deadline of 48 hours. On Sunday morning he moved the deadline to Tuesday at 8pm ET. Each deadline has come with escalating language and, so far, extensions. What makes the Easter Sunday post different is the specificity: not vague threats to "obliterate" or "destroy," but a named calendar event. "Tuesday will be Power Plant Day." That is a public announcement of intent to strike civilian infrastructure. That is what legal analysts are calling what it is.

"Praise be to Allah"

The president, a self-described Christian, signed a threatening war message on Easter Sunday — the holiest day of the Christian calendar — with "Praise be to Allah." The statement appears to be sardonic, mocking Islamic religious language in a message threatening Muslim-majority Iran. The day before, he closed a different post with "Glory be to GOD!" On Easter Sunday he switched religions mid-threat. He then skipped church. His Easter Sunday schedule, per the White House, was "executive time" followed by an Easter dinner with Melania Trump. No church service. No public Easter statement of the kind issued by every president in recent memory. Just a profanity-filled threat to bomb power plants, signed with a mockery of another religion's prayer.

Pope Leo XIV — in his first Easter message from St. Peter's Basilica, delivered the same morning — said: "Let those who have weapons lay them down. Let those who have the power to unleash wars choose peace." He was not subtle. Trump responded by threatening to blow up power plants.

The Context Nobody Should Be Allowed to Forget

Gas is $4.11 a gallon as of today, up 38% since the war started on February 28. This is the war Trump started. He promised in his second inaugural address: "We will measure our success not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars that we end — and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into." He has been president for less than fifteen months. The Strait of Hormuz — through which 20% of the world's oil normally flows — has been effectively closed since the war began. Trump's own administration has been sending contradictory signals about whether the US plans to force it open or simply leave. On one day he said it will "open up naturally." Analysts noted the last time he said something would disappear naturally, he was talking about COVID. Trump has now set and missed or extended at least four separate deadlines for Iran to open the strait. The Tuesday 8pm deadline is the fifth.

Meanwhile: 2,076 people have been killed in Iran since February 28. More than 520 US troops have been wounded. At least 15 US service members are dead. Congress has not voted once on this war. And the president spent Easter Sunday morning threatening to bomb the lights off in a country of 90 million people, signing his message with "Praise be to Allah," and then sitting down for executive time.