Vice President JD Vance is leaning all the way in on Donald Trump’s most extreme warning yet—backing a threat that suggests the complete destruction of Iran could be on the table within hours.
The escalation started with Trump himself, who posted a chilling message on Truth Social Tuesday: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”
Not long after, Vance took the stage in Hungary and made it clear the administration isn’t walking that rhetoric back.
“But we feel confident that we can get a response, whether it’s positive or negative, we’re going to get a response from the Iranians by 8 o’clock tonight,” Vance said.
He framed the looming deadline as part of a broader pressure campaign, tying it to economic concerns and energy markets.
“I hope they make the right response because what we really want is we want a world where oil and gas is flowing freely,” Vance added.
But the tone quickly shifted from economic talking points to outright warning.
“That’s not going to happen if the Iranians are engaged in acts of economic terrorism, so they’ve got to know we’ve got tools in our toolkit that we so far haven’t decided to use,” he said. “The President of the United States can decide to use them, and he will decide to use them if the Iranians don’t change their course of conduct.”
While Vance didn’t spell out what those “tools” are, the context—paired with Trump’s earlier statement—left little doubt about how severe the threat is being framed.
“So I hope that they’re smart. The president has set a deadline for about 12 hours from now in the United States. We’re going to find out, but there’s going to be a lot of negotiation between now and then,” Vance said.
Taken together, the message from both Trump and his vice president is unmistakable: comply quickly, or face genocide.
