“I don’t want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure. I don’t want to see that,” said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., an ally of President Trump.
President Trump threatens to destroy all bridges and power plants in Iran
President Donald Trump told reporters on April 6 that all of Iran “could be taken over overnight, and that night could be tomorrow night.”
President Donald Trump’s strongly worded Easter threat to blow up Iran’s infrastructure has sparked a backlash from prominent right-wing figures, further escalating tensions among Trump’s MAGA base over Iran.
Sen. Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin and a staunch Trump ally, expressed concern about Iranian attacks on bridges and power plants.
“I hope and pray…this is a real uproar,” Johnson said on April 6 on the John Solomon Report podcast. “I don’t want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure. I don’t want to see that.”
President Trump gave Tehran a deadline of 8 p.m. on April 7 to open the Strait of Hormuz, which has blocked oil flows from the Middle East, or face a dramatic escalation in U.S. attacks.
“Tuesday is Power Plant Day and Bridge Day rolled into one in Iran,” President Trump wrote in the early morning hours of April 5, Easter Sunday. “This will never happen!!! Open the straits, you crazy bastards, or you’ll live in hell – look! Praise be to Allah.”
Prominent conservative commentator Tucker Carlson said Trump’s posts were “despicable” on “every level.”
“It starts with a promise to use the U.S. military to destroy civilian infrastructure in other countries,” Carlson said April 6 on The Tucker Carlson Show. “That means committing war crimes and moral crimes against the people.”
Carlson said the destruction of the power plant would lead to the deaths of civilians: “Infants in incubators will die, people in hospitals will die,” he said. He also took issue with President Trump’s use of language, accusing him of “tweeting the F-word on Easter morning” and “ridiculing Iran’s religion.”
“If you want a religious war, that’s a good idea,” said Carlson, the former Fox News host. “By the way, no sane person would make fun of someone else’s religion.”
Carlson added that Trump’s post also indirectly mocks Christians and is “evil.”
Carlson, along with other conservative commentators such as Megyn Kelly and MAGA figures such as former Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, has criticized the Iran war from the beginning.
As the conflict drags on, criticism of the right has also grown. Johnson said he supported President Trump’s decision to attack Iran, but said: “We are not at war with the Iranian people. We are trying to liberate them.”
