Donald Trump Threatens Iran with Destruction and Attacks Former Media Allies

President Donald Trump's Easter Sunday post on Truth Social threatening to destroy Iranian infrastructure and end "the entire Iranian civilization" triggered a public rupture with some of his most prominent conservative media allies, exposing deep fractures within the MAGA coalition over the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war against Iran. Trump's message, which ended with an ironic "praise be to Allah," declared that Iran "will live in Hell" if the Strait of Hormuz was not reopened. An investigation by The New York Times found that more than half of the comments on that post were highly critical of the president — a striking reversal on a platform Trump created specifically as a safe harbor for his most loyal supporters. One commenter wrote: "Today I am ashamed that I voted for you in 2016, 2020 and 2024, after God saved your life in Pennsylvania." The backlash illustrated how the Iran war has eroded Trump's standing even within the narrow but intensely committed user base of his own social network, estimated at between two and six million users.

Trump brands former allies "losers" with "Low IQs" On Thursday, April 9, Trump responded to the criticism with a 482-word post on Truth Social directly targeting four conservative media figures who had opposed the war: political commentator Tucker Carlson, journalist and podcast host Megyn Kelly, political commentator Candace Owens, and radio host Alex Jones. Trump wrote that the four had "one thing in common: a low IQ," adding that they were "stupid people, they know it, their families know it, and everybody else knows it too." He described Carlson as a "broken man" who "has never been the same" since his firing from Fox News in 2023, suggested Carlson "see a good psychiatrist," and revived a long-standing feud with Kelly over a question she asked him during a 2015 debate. He commented on Owens's appearance by writing that Brigitte Macron was a "much more beautiful woman," and wrote that Jones "says some of the dumbest things," citing Jones's false claims about the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting as an example. Trump concluded: „These so-called 'experts' are LOSERS, and they always will be!” — Donald Trump via The New York Times

Carlson sells "LOW IQ" caps as allies hit back hard The four targeted figures responded sharply. The Tucker Carlson Network began advertising baseball caps bearing the phrase "LOW IQ," directly co-opting Trump's insult, with the advertisement captioned: "Calling all nut jobs, troublemakers, and third rate podcasters! New merch just dropped." Carlson had already called Trump's Easter threats "evil" and urged members of the administration to refuse the president's alleged plans, saying on his podcast: „The time has come to say no, flatly no, and say it directly to the president: no.” — Tucker Carlson via The New York Times Owens called the government "satanic" and called on the House of Representatives to remove Trump from office, while separately suggesting on X that it "may be time to put Grandpa up in a home." Jones posted that Trump sounded „like a deranged supervillain from a Marvel comic book movie.” — Alex Jones via The New York Times Kelly asked publicly: "Can't he behave like a normal human being?" Political figure Marjorie Taylor Greene, who resigned from the U.S. House of Representatives in 2026, also weighed in, writing: „I fought alongside Tucker Carlson, Megyn Kelly, Candace Owens, and Alex Jones to get Trump into office. And now, in a single post, he lets loose a confused tirade against all of us. We never changed, Trump did.” — Marjorie Taylor Greene via Tages Anzeiger

Analysts see limited but real damage to Trump's coalition The public fallout has prompted debate among analysts about how deeply the Iran war has fractured Trump's political base. According to University of St. Gallen professor Claudia Brühwiler, as reported by Watson.ch, the resistance within Republican ranks remains primarily rhetorical for now, involving "a comparatively small number of Republicans, including those who are critical of Trump anyway." Brühwiler identified two camps within Trump's own administration: one side, which reportedly includes Vice President JD Vance, pushed for keeping military operations in Iran as short as possible, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio and advocates of a harder foreign policy line have so far prevailed. Hawkish Republicans have insisted that skeptics of military intervention had projected their own isolationist views onto a president who was always less averse to using force than they assumed. Trump himself insisted in his post that he had not lost his base, pointing to a claimed 100 percent approval rating from people identifying as MAGA supporters on CNN. The Frankfurter Allgemeine noted that the defection of figures with millions of followers is harder to dismiss than isolated criticism, given that Trump's political success has been built on a network of podcasters and social media influencers who amplify his message to the broader base.

Truth Social was founded by Trump in February 2022 following the suspension of his accounts on Twitter and Facebook in the aftermath of the January 6, 2021 assault on the U.S. Capitol. The platform has reported losses of hundreds of millions of euros year after year, according to El Periódico. The current U.S.-Israeli military campaign against Iran, known as Operation Epic Fury, began on February 28, 2026, and resulted in the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in the initial strikes. His son Mojtaba Khamenei was appointed Supreme Leader on March 9, 2026. The Strait of Hormuz has been under an effective blockade during the conflict, prompting Trump's escalating threats against Iranian infrastructure.

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