Joe Scarborough didn’t mince words when it came to President Donald Trump’s social media tirade threatening “Hell” on Iran.
Trump drew the ire of Democratic officials and some Republicans when he demanded that Iran reopen the Strait of Hormuz — through which much of the world’s oil supply passes ― in an obscenity-filled post on his Truth Social platform on Easter Sunday.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” Trump wrote. “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah.”
On Monday, Scarborough condemned the “muted” response to the president’s post among many members of the GOP, noting that the reaction would have been very different had those remarks appeared on the social media account of any other president.
“It would have shut down Washington had it been done by Joe Biden, by Barack Obama, by George W. Bush, by Bill Clinton, by anybody that sat in the Oval Office before Donald Trump,” the co-host of MS Now’s “Morning Joe” said, adding that the response “shows you just how numb not only the Republican Party, but also a lot of members of the press, have become to the most outrageous of statements.”
Watch a clip of Scarborough’s remarks on Trump’s Easter Sunday post below.
Elsewhere in the segment, Scarborough pointed out that Trump’s post “insults every Muslim across the planet and a good number of Christians,” and suggested it will only further inflame the conflict.
“There are those who would suggest: ‘Well, you just don’t understand Trump. Trump is schooling everybody,’” he said. “It’s not Donald Trump or our people in the media we’re concerned about, it’s what’s the impact on those who consider America their enemies, and the impact is not good.”
“This is not a post that would frighten them, like it might frighten some people in the West who are intimidated by the United States and Donald Trump,” he continued. “But this actually energizes them and entrenches them even more.”
Trump has routinely issued threats against Iran on Truth Social since the joint military operation between the U.S. and Israel began there in late February. Though the president alluded to the Tuesday deadline he’d set for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz in his post Sunday, Iranian officials have thus far rejected U.S. proposals for a ceasefire.
Trump’s former campaign manager Bill Stepien defended the president’s approach during a Sunday appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“This is the first war fought in this age of social media with this president. I think he does things very differently,” he said. “I think he does things in his own way — different than Biden, different than Obama. And I think we were seeing this playing out this morning.”
