President Donald Trump’s appearance at the White House’s annual family-oriented Easter celebration took a bizarre turn Monday as he regaled an audience of young children and their parents about the U.S. military’s purported successes and claimed the Iranian people are unhappy when not being attacked by American bombs.
Speaking to attendees at the White House annual Easter Egg Roll alongside the Easter Bunny — typically a low-level White House staffer in costume — Trump called the yearly South Lawn celebration “a special day” to “celebrate Jesus” and “celebrate religion” before pivoting to boasting of how the country has “broken every record in our military” and praising U.S. forces of successfully rescuing a downed F-15 pilot who’d been forced to eject from his fighter over Iran last week.
“I just want to say we have a great military. We’re the greatest military, the most powerful military any place in the world. You saw what happened with Venezuela, and it’s an honor. I built it in my first term, and I didn’t know I was going to be using it this much in my second term, but it’s my honor,” Trump said.
“And they’re the greatest people on Earth. Our warriors are the greatest fighters on Earth, and they very much appreciate you and love you, and that’s why they do it.”
The president’s remarks came just hours before he was scheduled to take part in a press conference alongside military leaders as the war he and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu started against Iran enters its sixth week, but as he wandered around the South Lawn to meet with the children who’d come to the White House with their parents (most of whom were political supporters who’d been rewarded with tickets to the event) he repeatedly offered commentary on the war under questioning from reporters.
He claimed the current Iranian leadership — whose identities are not publicly known — are “much more reasonable” than the people who’d been targeted for assassination during Israeli and American decapitation strikes in the opening days of the war.
Those deceased leaders were “lunatics,” he said,” adding that “the people that we negotiated with now in on behalf of Iran, are much more reasonable.”
Trump then proceeded to attack the supermajority of Americans who are currently opposed to the month-old war as “foolish” and claimed once again that the purpose of the massive air campaign is to make sure that Tehran “cannot have a nuclear weapon” while boasting that the combined American and Israeli air power has “obliterated” the country and promising that unless Iranian leaders “say uncle” there will be “no bridges” and “no power plants” and “no anything I want to” left in the country.
Asked what the administration’s message to Iran’s children would be, first lady Melania, who joined her husband, told reporters that the war “is happening for their future so they will be safe in years to come.”
“We’re keeping them as safe as we can possibly keep them, but we’re fighting for their parents, their grandparents. We’re fighting for them … the time the Iranian people are the most unhappy when you hear bombs all over is when those bombs stop,” the president said.
He also boasted of his desire to loot Iran’s natural resources and expressed disappointment that the American people would oppose such a course of action.
“If I had my choice, what would I like to do? Take the oil, because it’s there for the taking. There’s not a thing they can do about it. Unfortunately, the American people would like to see us come home. It were up to me. I take the oil, I keep the oil, and would make plenty of money,” Trump said.
The bizarre impromptu press conference was taking place in the shadow of Trump’s repeated threats to attack Iranian civilian infrastructure, including roads, bridges, power plants and the desalinization facilities that ensure the country’s 90 million-strong population has enough fresh water for drinking and other life-sustaining needs.
He continued to engage with reporters in between stints of small talk – sometimes overshadowed by the band playing in the background – with attendees and their children, including one strange moment when he showed off a picture of his proposed triumphal arch to the Easter Bunny, who accompanied him for much of his stroll across the South Lawn.
Trump has given Tehran until 8:30 p.m. ET on Tuesday to allow maritime traffic to begin flowing through the Strait of Hormuz — a key waterway through which approximately a fifth of the world’s oil and gas supplies must transit each year — or begin suffering the intentional destruction of the country’s infrastructure at the hands of American warplanes.
A day before, on Easter Sunday, he took to Truth Social with a vulgar ultimatum for the Iranian government, warning them that Tuesday would be “power plant day and bridge day, all wrapped up in one.”
The bizarre rant continued with him urging Tehran: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!”
He also added: “Praise be to Allah.”
The attacks Trump has repeatedly threatened for weeks now would almost certainly violate the Fourth Geneva Convention’s prohibitions against targeting civilian infrastructure necessary for a population’s survival.
The United States has ratified that 1949 treaty — giving it the same legal force as the U.S. Constitution — and has signed, but not ratified, a 1977 “additional protocol” that prohibits intentional attacks on “the civilian population and civilian objects.”
But in 1993, the United Nations Security Council adopted a U.N. Secretary-General’s report which held that the treaty and additional protocols are binding on all parties in armed conflict, including non-signatories to the convention.
Additionally, American criminal law prohibits the commission of war crimes, which it defines as “a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party.”
The U.S. criminal code states that any person who commits war crimes can be imprisoned for life or put to death if a war crime results in the death of any victims.
But Trump has repeatedly refused to back off his threats and White House officials have denied that the U.S. would engage in anything but “lawful” conduct, with Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt telling reporters last week that American forces would “always act within the confines of the law.”
When pressed specifically about why he’d persist in ordering attacks that would likely be war crimes under both U.S. and international law, Trump was dismissive of the subject despite being asked to explain it repeatedly.
At one point, he suggested attacking civilian power and water plants would be excusable because he claimed Iran’s leaders had ordered the execution of as many as 45,000 protesters in recent months and called them “animals” who “we have to stop.”
When asked again a short time later, he replied that the “war crime” in question would be “allowing Iran to have a nuclear weapon.”
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