News update
  • Enforced Disappearances, Extrajudicial Killings ‘Almost Nil’: Minister      |     
  • PM accords reception to winners of international Quran competition     |     
  • 300,000 displaced people in Gaza seek safe shelter: UNDP     |     
  • Climate change made deadly Nepal glacier and rock collapse more likely     |     
  • Building damaged in Israeli strikes collapses in Gaza, killing 21     |     

How many times has Trump threatened to destroy Iran?

Greenwatch Desk World News 2026-09-18, 7:20am

images17-e7deb6447429be10b7681a42abf6d55d1789694567.jpg




US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran with sweeping destruction since launching the joint military campaign with Israel on February 28.


Here are six notable instances where he has targeted Iran, its vital infrastructure, or its population with warnings of large-scale devastation:

March 21: ‘Obliterate’ power plants

Trump gave Iran 48 hours to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to “hit and obliterate” its power plants, beginning with the largest.

April 1: Back to the ‘Stone Ages’

In a televised address, Trump said Iran would be taken back to the “Stone Ages” if it failed to reach an agreement, while threatening further attacks on its electricity grid.

April 5: Iran would ‘face hell’

Trump issued another deadline for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, threatening attacks on bridges and power plants and warning Iran that it would “face hell”.

April 6: Country ‘taken out in one night’

Trump said, “the entire country can be taken out in one night” and outlined a plan under which every bridge would be “decimated” and every power plant left “burning” and “exploding”.

April 7: ‘A whole civilization will die’

Trump warned that “a whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” if Tehran rejected his demands, reports AL Jazeera.

September 17: ‘Do I want to annihilate them?’

Trump again raised the possibility of destroying the Iranian government.
“Do I want to go in and annihilate them, or do I not?” he told Axios. “It’s a big decision. Anything could happen with me.”