By Bo Erickson and Susan Heavey
WASHINGTON, April 5 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump said in an expletive-laden social media post on Sunday that the United States will target Iran's power plants and bridges on Tuesday if the Strait of Hormuz is not reopened.
"Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!" Trump said in a Truth Social post, referencing the key shipping lane that Tehran has effectively closed since the U.S. and Israel
launched attacks on Iran more than a month ago.
"Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!" Trump said, ending his Easter morning post with: "Praise be to Allah."
Trump's threat follows an intense 48-hour rescue operation for two U.S. pilots inside Iran. Trump said in his earlier Sunday social media post that the second pilot rescued was "seriously wounded" and is a "highly respected Colonel."
"The rescue was an Easter Miracle," Trump said in a text message to NBC News' "Meet the Press" on Sunday before heading to his Washington golf club. "Such a rescue has never happened before in so violent an enemy territory."
The rescued U.S. pilot climbed 7,000 feet up an Iranian mountain to be evacuated, said U.S. Sen. Dave McCormick, a Pennsylvania Republican and U.S. Army veteran, on "Fox News Sunday," citing a conversation with a senior Trump administration official.
U.S. House Intelligence Chairman Rick Crawford, an Arkansas Republican and U.S. Army veteran, said on Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo" that the American rescuers had to "destroy a couple of aircraft on the ground to prevent that technology from falling into enemy hands."
Last week, the president said the U.S. will carry out aggressive strikes on Iran over the next two to three weeks and is nearing completion of its main strategic objectives in the war.
On Sunday, Trump told Fox News that Iran is negotiating and that a deal is possible on Monday. However, the president has repeatedly said since the operation started on February 28 that Iran wants to make a deal. Iran has not yet shown a willingness to comply with Trump's demands.
On Sunday, Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned its attacks against U.S. economic interests in the region would be intensified if attacks on civilian targets in Iran are repeated.
"If they don't make a deal, I am blowing up everything over there," Trump told Axios in an interview on Sunday, according to the news outlet.
In his Sunday posts, Trump said he will hold a news conference on Monday in the Oval Office alongside the military.
Trump's Easter warning targeting Iranian power plants and bridges follows a threat to hit desalination plants, which some international law experts said could violate international humanitarian law.
"I wouldn't toy with him if I were the Iranians," Crawford also said on the Fox News program about Trump's post. "He has a lot of backbone, and he's not going to be dissuaded."
But others criticized Trump's rhetoric for going too far.
U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat on the Armed Services Committee, urged Trump to "please dial back the rhetoric." On "Meet the Press" Kaine said Trump's language was "embarrassing and juvenile" and raised the risk for U.S. service members.
"Everyone in his administration that claims to be a Christian needs to fall on their knees and beg forgiveness from God and stop worshipping the President and intervene in Trump’s madness," former U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who was one of Trump's most vocal defenders before her recent resignation, said online about the president's language.
Thirteen U.S. service members have died and hundreds of others have been wounded throughout the Middle East since the U.S. and Israel started operations.
After the U.S. and Israel launched the war last month, Iran responded by blocking the Strait of Hormuz, crucial for global oil transport, leading to skyrocketing oil and gasoline costs for consumers around the world. The average U.S. gasoline price hit $4.11 a gallon on Sunday, according to AAA, up from below $3 when strikes on Iran began.
“Iran recognizes that, in fact, their control over the Strait is even more strategically vital to them than the development of a nuclear weapon,” U.S. Representative Jake Auchincloss, a Massachusetts Democrat and U.S. Marine Corps veteran, said on "Fox News Sunday."
He added that even though militarily the United States remains unrivaled in destroying targets, "strategically, this war has been a failure."
(Reporting by Bo Erickson; additional reporting by Courtney Rozen; editing by Dan Burns, Ros Russell and Aurora Ellis)
