Trump faces calls for removal over threats to wipe out ‘whole civilization’ in Iran

Still, concern grew Tuesday even among Republicans and former Trump allies.

Republican Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former Georgia representative and Trump acolyte-turned-antagonist, called Trump’s post “evil and madness.”

“25TH AMENDMENT!!! Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization,” Greene posted to X.

Elected Republicans began to publicly recoil in the hours after the president’s initial proclamation that he would destroy the Iranian civilization.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, broke sharply with Trump in a social media post on Tuesday, condemning his rhetoric.

“The President’s threat that ‘a whole civilization will die tonight’ cannot be excused away as an attempt to gain leverage in negotiations with Iran,” Murkowski said. “This type of rhetoric is an affront to the ideals our nation has sought to uphold and promote around the world for nearly 250 years. It undermines our long-standing role as a global beacon of freedom and directly endangers Americans both abroad and at home.”

Murkowski, a moderate who has clashed with Trump in the past, said “[e]veryone involved — especially the President and Iran’s leaders — must de-escalate their unprecedented saber-rattling before it is too late.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., a current Trump ally, broke with the president during a Monday appearance on the “John Solomon Reports” podcast. Johnson said he hoped Trump’s words were “bluster.”

“I do not want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure,” Johnson said. “We are not at war with the Iranian people. We are trying to liberate them.”

And Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas, in a statement posted to X on Tuesday pushed back on Trump’s rhetoric while stopping short of calling for his removal.

“I do not support the destruction of a ‘whole civilization.’ That is not who we are, and it is not consistent with the principles that have long guided America,” Moran wrote. “I have and will continue to support a strong national defense — one that is focused, disciplined, and firmly rooted in protecting the safety and security of the American people. But, how we protect the lives of the innocent is just as important as how we engage the enemy.”

Rep. Kevin Kiley, a former California Republican recently turned independent, in a post on X said, “The United States does not destroy civilizations.”

“Nor do we threaten to do so as some sort of negotiating tactic. We should all desire a future of freedom, security, and prosperity for the people of Iran,” he said, asserting that Congress “has a responsibility to conduct oversight with respect to ongoing military operations and our obligations under both U.S. law and international agreements to which we are a signatory.”

Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2026/04/07/25th-amendment-trump-removal-iran-war.html