WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has pushed back a deadline for Iran to cut a deal or open the Strait of Hormuz from Monday to Tuesday, the latest of several deadline delays, and threatened that without a deal, "Hell will reign down on them."
Trump's previous deadline was for March 23, but that shifted several times over the ensuing weeks as Trump oscillated between heated threats, announced delays and proclamations that the negotiations were going well, sometimes in the same statement.
Iran rejected the latest ceasefire proposal, the country's state-run IRNA news agency reported Monday. Shortly after, Trump gave an ominous warning to Iran if it didn't capitulate, and suggested Tuesday's 8 p.m. deadline was final.
"They'll have no bridges. They'll have no power plants. They'll have no anything," he said.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned the U.S. that attacks on civilian infrastructure are banned under international law, according to his spokesperson. Trump, speaking with reporters, said he's "not at all" concerned about committing war crimes with such attacks.
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Here are some of Trump's deadlines and threats, and what happened next.
An ultimatum about reopening the Strait of Hormuz
On March 21, Trump posted on Truth Social that if Iran doesn't "FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS."
Iran had until the evening of March 23.
Then, 12 hours before the deadline, Trump took to Truth Social to share the good news: that both countries had productive conversations toward concluding the conflict.
"I HAVE INSTRUCTED THE DEPARTMENT OF WAR TO POSTPONE ANY AND ALL MILITARY STRIKES AGAINST IRANIAN POWER PLANTS AND ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE FOR A FIVE DAY PERIOD," he wrote, adding that was subject to the success of the discussions.
That pushed the deadline out to the end of that week.
A threat to target desalinization plants
Before the deadline, on March 26, Trump doubled down on his threats on Truth Social: "They better get serious soon, before it is too late, because once that happens, there is NO TURNING BACK, and it won't be pretty!"
But later that day, he extended the deadline another 10 days, to April 6 at 8 p.m., and said on Truth Social that negotiations were "going very well."
On March 30, Trump put out a mixed statement: celebrating progress in the talks with Iran while also expanding his threatened bombing if a deal wasn't "shortly reached," adding that "it probably will be."
"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!)," he wrote.
It's unclear how soon "shortly reached" meant for Trump, but a deal was not made as the deadline loomed.
President Donald Trump speaks to the crowd during the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House, April 6, in Washington.
An expletive-filled threat to attack power plants and bridges
"Remember when I gave Iran ten days to MAKE A DEAL or OPEN UP THE HORMUZ STRAIT," Trump said in a Truth Social post on Saturday, "Time is running out - 48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them."
As the deadline approached, his posts had doubled down on his threats until Sunday, when Trump pushed the deadline again in an expletive-filled post.
"Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F——-in' Strait, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in Hell," Trump said on Truth Social, followed by another post that specified 8 p.m. as the deadline.
Trump then suggested on Monday that Tuesday's deadline would be final, saying he'd already given Iran enough extensions.
"The entire country can be taken out in one night, and that night might be tomorrow night," Trump said. "We have a plan, because of the power of our military, where every bridge in Iran will be decimated by 12 o'clock tomorrow night."
President Donald Trump departs after speaking with reporters in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, April 6, in Washington.
What's next for diplomacy with Iran?
Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran's diplomatic mission in Cairo, said Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after the U.S. bombed the Islamic Republic twice during previous rounds of talks.
"We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won't be attacked again," he told The Associated Press.
A regional official involved in the talks said efforts had not collapsed. "We are still talking to both sides," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss closed-door diplomacy.
On an Israeli TV station, Channel 13, the evening newscast showed a large digital clock counting down the hours and minutes to Tuesday's deadline.
Photos from the Mideast as Iran war continues
A man takes cover as air raid sirens sound, warning of rockets launched from Lebanon toward Israel, in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli security forces and rescue team respond at the site of an Iranian missile strike in Tel Aviv, Israel, Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Relatives grieve in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, March 24, 2026, during a funeral of members of the Popular Mobilization Forces who were killed in a U.S. airstrike in Anbar, Iraq. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Israeli soldiers secure the site where an Iranian missile wreckage landed in the West Bank village of Kifl Haris Tuesday, March 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
An Israeli soldier jumps from a tank in northern Israel near the border with Lebanon, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli security forces and rescue teams work at the site struck by an Iranian missile in Arad, southern Israel, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Israeli security forces survey the site that was struck by an Iranian missile in Dimona, southern Israel, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Smoke and flames rise from an Israeli airstrike that hit the Qasmiyeh Bridge near the coastal city of Tyre, Lebanon, Sunday, March 22, 2026. (AP Photo/Mohammad Zaatari)
Rescue workers and first responders work at a residential building hit in an earlier U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Children play beside a fragment of an Iranian ballistic missile that landed in a schoolyard in the Israeli settlement of Peduel in the West Bank Monday, March 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
People follow a truck carrying the flag draped coffins of Gen. Ali Mohammad Naeini, a spokesperson for Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and one of his comrades Amir Hossein Bidi , during their funeral procession in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian worshippers perform Eid al-Fitr prayers marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramadan as one of them wears an Iranian flag at the Imam Khomeini Grand Mosque in Tehran, Iran, Saturday, March 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A displaced woman who fled Israeli airstrikes in southern Lebanon, carries her belonging as she moves to a better spot to shelter from the rain, past an Arabic anti-war poster that reads, "Sacrificing for whom? Lebanon does not need war," in Beirut, Saturday, March 21, 2026.(AP Photo/Hussein Malla)
Iranian Kurdish Mariam crosses the Haji Omeran border crossing on foot between Iran and the autonomous Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), Iraq, Sunday, March 15, 2026, as the border remains open. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
A man cleans debris from his apartment damaged when a nearby police station was hit Friday in a U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
The shattered structure of a police station is seen after it was hit Friday in a U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A FlyDubai plane is parked at Dubai International Airport as smoke rises in the background after a drone struck a fuel tank early morning, forcing the temporary suspension of flights, in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo)
A member of the armed wing of the Kurdish-Iranian opposition group Organization of Iranian Kurdistan Struggle, known as Khabat, stands in front of a shrapnel pockmarked wall that allegedly was damaged in strike by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq last week at a military base on the outskirts of Irbil, Iraq, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Leo Correa)
Israeli security forces inspect a house in east Jerusalem where a fragment of an Iranian missile crashed onto the rooftop, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
Israeli soldiers operate next to their mobile artillery unit on the border with Lebanon in northern Israel, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Nofar Eliash holds her dog as she takes shelter with others while air raid sirens warn of incoming Iranian and Hezbollah missile strikes in Kiryat Shmona, northern Israel, Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
A man runs past a bulldozer clearing debris from a building damaged in an Israeli airstrike in Dahiyeh, Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanon, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Residents inspect a house damaged yesterday by a projectiles launched from Lebanon in Nahariya, northern Israel, Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariel Schalit)
Israeli air defense system fires to intercept missiles during an Iranian attack over Tel Aviv, Israel, early Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ohad Zwigenberg)
Volunteers clean debris from a residential building damaged when a nearby police station was hit Friday in a U.S.-Israeli strike in Tehran, Iran, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
People walk past tents sheltering people displaced by Israeli airstrikes at a public space along the Beirut waterfront at sunset in Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, March 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)
Fire and plumes of smoke rise after a drone struck a fuel tank forcing the temporary suspension of flights. near Dubai International Airport, in United Arab Emirates, early Monday, March 16, 2026. (AP Photo)

