President Donald Trump's promise to "decimate and destroy all areas of Iran" stunned a former Obama administration official Saturday morning.
Richard Stengel, former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, shared his alarm over Trump's recent Truth Social threat with MS NOW viewers.
"The fact of an American president threatening genocide against the whole people in case he's assassinated is more than unseemly," Stengel said. "It's it's incredibly vulgar and undiplomatic language."
Stengel was responding to Trump's own reaction to the Wall Street Journal report earlier this week that a new Iranian plan to assassinate him may have been uncovered by Israeli intelligence.
Late Friday night, Trump responded with a direct threat.
"1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran," wrote Trump, "with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!"
Stengel expressed extreme cynicism with the Trump administration and all its rhetoric regarding its months-long war with Iran and the weeks-long "ceasefire" the president declared "over" last week.
Trump's rhetoric, Stengel argued, was just another ploy.
"I think they're just playing for time," he said. "I think ultimately will happen is sort of like what has happened in Gaza. We're not talking about Gaza anymore. Where was the great peace deal in Gaza? Well, I think Trump will just kick this down the road for months and even years, and there will be occasional flare ups, but they will never be a nuclear deal."
Watch the interview below.