President Donald Trump's threat to commit what one former Obama administration official described as "genocide" stunned onlookers Saturday with the sign-off, "PRAISE BE TO ALLAH!"
In a Friday night Truth Social post, Trump threatened to "completely decimate" Iran, adding "1000 Missiles are Locked and Loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow." Trump was going on about how the military would retaliate "for a one year period" if he were assassinated by Iran.
The entire threat stunned Richard Stengel, former Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy, who shared his alarm on MS NOW Saturday morning.
"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."
However, it was his choice to end the post with "PRAISE BE TO ALLAH! President DONALD J. TRUMP" that left online critics baffled, even though he's done it before.
"So much weirdness in this most recent threat to destroy Iran," veteran journalist and political commentator Tom Nichols reacted. "(Why one year? Praise Allah?) The Iranians have, I suspect, learned to tune all this out. But something's very wrong with the president."
"This is total insanity," wrote journalist Aaron Rupar. "Words fail to explain how anyone let alone a plurality of voters thought giving an obviously demented person control of the most powerful government in the world was a good idea. We will be lucky to come out the other side of this alive."
"PRAISE BE TO ALLAH! to end this is incredible work," political columnist William Kedjanyi commented.
"Donald Trump is mentally deranged," writer and journalist Steven Beschloss posted. "He's a danger to the U.S. He's a danger to the globe. He does not belong in this position of power—in control of the massive U.S. military—and he should be removed from office. This is not a joke."