MS NOW panel pounces on Trump's early-morning threat to commit 'war crimes'
Donald Trump looks on during the signing of executive orders in the Oval Office. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
March 30, 2026
Moments after Donald Trump posted online that he is considering destroying Iran's entire power infrastructure and desalination plants, MS NOW host Jonathan Lemire and national security analyst David Rohde expressed shock that the president is admitting that he is willing to commit what are undeniably war crimes.
Coming back from a commercial break, Lemire broke the news that the president had posted, in part, on Truth Social, “... if the Hormuz Strait is not immediately ‘Open for Business,’ we will conclude our lovely ‘stay’ in Iran by blowing up and completely obliterating all of their Electric Generating Plants, Oil Wells and Kharg Island (and possibly all desalinization plants!), which we have purposefully not yet ‘touched.’ This will be in retribution for our many soldiers, and others, that Iran has butchered and killed over the old Regime’s 47 year ‘Reign of Terror.’”
After reading from the president’s post, Lemire observed, “It's an extraordinary threat here from the president. So two beats: one is, do we have any evidence that these are actually a new regime in place and these talks are going anywhere? And secondly, talk to us about what it would mean if the president follows through on these threats, which some have already said, these are like war crimes targeting electrical plants, desalinization plants. The impact would be immense for Iran in the region.”
Rohde agreed.
“In terms of this tweet, it's shocking. It is a war crime to destroy all of a country's power plants,” he told Lemire before elaborating, “That's what Russia is doing in Ukraine. And then, what's extraordinary also is to: ‘and possibly all desalination plants.’ That's water plants that this entire region relies on. “
“You would, I mean, the Iranians struck one desalination plant in the Gulf, and it sort of sparked panic because huge cities depend on those plants for water supply,” he added. “So Tehran itself would have a problem if the U.S. did this. Riyadh would have to be evacuated. Dubai would have to be evacuated. This is a whole new level of warfare that he's talking about. And again, they are war crimes. This is the American president saying we will threaten to do this to you.”
"It can't be said enough, they would be war crimes,” Lemire repeated.
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