Grijalva calls Trump’s handling of Iran war 'unhinged and deranged'

U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva says President Donald Trump is threatening the genocide of civilians as leverage in negotiations in the war against Iran, calling it illegal and “evil.”

The Democratic congresswoman from Tucson said the Republican president has shown himself to be unfit to be the commander in chief and that the United States has lost the respect of nations across the world.

“The Geneva Conventions expressly prohibit the targeting of civilian infrastructure — bridges, power plants, you know, and the like. And it’s just unconscionable,” Grijalva told the Arizona Daily Star in an interview Wednesday. The Geneva Conventions are international treaties that establish legal standards for humanitarian treatment in war.

“And literally doing this seemingly unilaterally. I don’t know how many of his secretaries know what he’s doing, or the vice president. He definitely doesn’t come to Congress, and it demonstrates that he’s clearly unfit to serve as our commander in chief,” Grijalva said.

“And that’s why I called for his removal from office, if not by Congress or his own Cabinet, the 25th Amendment," she said.

The 25th Amendment, established in 1967, is the primary mechanism for dealing with a president “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.” Section 4 of this amendment allows for the vice president and the majority of the Cabinet to declare the sitting president is unfit and transfer his powers to the vice president as acting president.

Tucson’s other representative in Congress, Republican Rep. Juan Ciscomani, didn’t respond to multiple messages from the Star Tuesday and Wednesday seeking comment about developments in the U.S.-Israel war against Iran.

Trump had issued a Tuesday night deadline for Iran to make a deal or face attacks on its power plants and bridges.

He escalated his threats against civilians that morning. “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don’t want that to happen, but it probably will,” the president wrote on his social media platform hours before his 8 p.m. Eastern deadline Tuesday.

Then, he announced a ceasefire deal about 90 minutes before the deadline. He agreed “to suspend the bombing and attack of Iran for a period of two weeks” starting Wednesday on the condition that Iran reopened the Strait of Hormuz.

Grijalva said Trump “violated the (U.S.) Constitution in getting us into this war in the first place without approval from Congress” and “he cannot be trusted to protect American national security," she said. 

“On the contrary, he’s actively jeopardizing our safety,” she continued. “He’s openly threatening to commit genocide and violate international law. And when we think about the United States’ role historically in the world, (now) we have national leaders that are looking to us saying ‘we can’t trust the United States.’ And we have what used to be our allies actively walking away from us.”

“We’re talking about a war that has fully engulfed the Middle East, and Trump is just unhinged and deranged and there is no logic to any of it,” Grijalva said, calling the ceasefire deal “precarious.”

Vice President J.D. Vance will lead talks with Iran on Saturday in Islamabad, Pakistan, national media outlets reported Wednesday. This will be the highest level meeting between the U.S. and Iran since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Axios reported.

Vance is “completely unqualified to lead any of those talks,” Grijalva said, adding that he “doesn’t have the temperament nor the intelligence to be able to clearly articulate the United States’ position, because we don’t have one.”

The Pentagon has sent a $200 billion supplemental budget request for ongoing operations in the Iran war.

If this request is fully funded, Grijalva said, it will force significant cuts in funding for everyday programs in local communities.

“It’s one thing when you have a country that’s like, ‘Yes, you know, this is all about the security of our nation.’ But this has nothing to do with our security,” Grijalva said. “And I think that that’s really clear. And so, when we’re looking at the sacrifices as a nation that we’re going to have to make, I think that regardless of party, you have a population in this country that is unwilling to do it.”