Trump disturbs onlookers by invoking God in new ‘deranged’ threat to ‘reign down hell’

President Donald Trump warned Iran Saturday that unless it re-opens a critical shipping channel to U.S.-aligned vessels by Monday, “all Hell will reign down on them,” invoking God in his explosive threat and disturbing onlookers in the process.

Iran has shut down access to the Strait of Hormuz – a critical shipping channel through which 20% of the world’s oil trade flows – to U.S.-aligned vessels in response to U.S.-Israeli attacks, sending oil prices soaring and rattling global stability.

Last month, Trump threatened to target Iranian energy plants unless the Strait of Hormuz was re-opened to U.S.-aligned vessels within 48 hours. He ultimately extended the deadline by five days, and again by another five days. The end of Trump’s second deadline extension lands on Monday, and on Saturday, Trump reminded Tehran that only 48 hours remained.

“Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT,” Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. “Time is running out – 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to GOD!”

The president’s threat – coupled with his invoking of God – disturbed a number of onlookers, including author, researcher and clinician Sam Youssef, who described Trump’s remarks as “deranged” in a social media post on X to their more than 750,000 followers.

Others, like Christopher Clary, an associate professor at University at Albany, made a telling observation about Trump having invoked God in his threat.

“Trump [is] only one month into his Middle East war and he’s already signing off his tweets with Allahu Akbar,” Clary wrote to his more than 32,000 followers on X, with “Allahu Akbar” being an Arabic phrase that loosely translates to “God is great.”

Marc Polymeropoulos, a former CIA officer and national security expert, made a similar observation.

“Trump ending with a Christian nationalist version of Allahu Akbar is quite a thing,” Polymeropoulos wrote in a social media post on X to their more than 52,000 followers.