Edward T
13.1K posts
🇺🇸🇪🇺 Reuters reveals that when Trump warned "a whole civilization will die tonight" on April 7th, European and Asian governments feared he was threatening nuclear war. The most alarming detail: the State Department couldn't explain it either. Officials there "did not know what Trump meant or what actions might follow." The UK, France, and Germany drafted a joint statement condemning it but never released it because they were afraid it would provoke Trump into continuing the bombing. America's closest allies self-censored their own response to a potential nuclear threat because criticizing the president felt more dangerous than the threat itself. Governments also feared the rhetoric would give Putin justification to escalate nuclear threats in Ukraine, creating simultaneous crises across multiple regions. One Truth Social post nearly triggered a global nuclear panic. Looking back, the "whole civilization will die tonight" moment was almost certainly the madman theory at peak intensity. The ceasefire came hours later. But learning that the State Department, the institution responsible for explaining American foreign policy to the world, had no idea what their own president meant is a detail that will define how allies assess U.S. reliability for years to come. The strategy worked. But the cost to American credibility is still being calculated.
