From impeachment demands to ceasefire: Trump's Iran critics spoke too soon

On Tuesday morning, President Donald Trump turned the eyes of the world on himself, with a Truth Social post of maximalist rhetoric,reminding that the deadline for Iran to reach a cease-fire agreement was nearing its end.

"A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again. I don't want that to happen, but it probably will. However, now that we have a Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS? We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World. 47 years of extortion, corruption and death will finally come to an end. God Bless the great people of Iran!"

The world was left with the first sentence. "A whole civilization will die tonight," and criticism rained down from inside and outside the United States.

Dozens of Democratic lawmakers advocated initiating impeachment proceedings or having Amendment 25, which establishes criteria and procedures for initiating presidential succession and incapacitation of the U.S. president through his Cabinet, enforced.

"The 25th Amendment exists for a reason; his Cabinet should use it. The fate of U.S. troops, the Iranian people, and the very foundation of our global system are at stake," said Iranian-American Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ).

Progressive Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN) joined the call, "This is not ok. Invoke the 25th amendment. Impeach. Remove. This unhinged lunatic must be removed from office."

Rep. Maxine Dexter (D-OR) also wrote for 'X': "It is past time to impeach and/or invoke the 25th Amendment. Republicans must put country over blind loyalty to one man."

According to an Axios report, by Tuesday afternoon, more than 50 House Democrats—along with Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)—had called for President Trump's impeachment, either through an impeachment process or the 25th Amendment.

One Democratic lawmaker, despite backing criticism of Trump, called the proposal unworkable.

"I'm getting a lot of traffic about the 25th Amendment after Trump's mad rants. The president is facing serious mental decline; I'm with you on that," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said on "X." 

"But unfortunately, invoking the 25th is not realistic right now, given his oddball Cabinet of sycophants and eccentrics, and Republican 'spines of foam.' We're going to have to buckle down and win this the old-fashioned way," he sentenced. 

Democrats were joined by some now-regular Republicans and critics within the conservative world, such as anchor Tucker Carlson or former congresswoman and onetime Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene. However, surprise criticism came from Republican lawmakers considered allies of the president.

"I do not want to see us start blowing up civilian infrastructure," Senator Ron Johnson said Monday during an interview on the "John Solomon Reports" podcast.

Johnson himself later told the Wall Street Journal that such an attack would be "a huge mistake"and that the president would still lose electoral support if he followed through on his threat to bomb Iran "back to the Stone Age." The president would lose even more electoral support if he followed through on his threat to bomb Iran "back to the Stone Age.

Likewise, Rep. Nathaniel Moran, a Texas Republican and advocate of military intervention in Iran, dissociated himself from Trump's comment on the social networking site Truth.

"I do not support the destruction of a 'whole civilization,'" Moran said on social media. "That is not who we are, and it is not consistent with the principles that have long guided America."

These criticisms were even joined by Pope Leo XIV, who, over the past few months, had been very cautious when speaking about President Trump and his policies.

When asked by the press, Leo stated that Trump's threat was "truly unacceptable," stating that attacks on civilian infrastructure are against international law.

"I would simply say, once again, what I said in the 'Urbi et Orbi' message on Sunday: asking all people of goodwill to search, always, for peace and not violence; to reject war, especially a war which many people have said is an unjust war, which is continuing to escalate and which is not resolving anything," the pope said.

The events unfolded differently

After Trump's publication and those of criticism received, media such as The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times reported that Iran and the US had stopped, officially, negotiating a ceasefire, making US attacks imminent. Since Israel, various local media began to post a live countdown to the end of the deadline.

Later in the day, however, another version began to circulate: Axios, citing sources at theWhite House and Middle East, confirmed that negotiations were still ongoing and that Iran had proposed a ten-point peace plan that Washington agreed to discuss. A Trump Administration official even stressed that the proposal, while far from what they wanted, was better than they thought.

Almost immediately, Pakistan's prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, publicly asked President Trump to extend his ultimatum to Iran by two more weeks to allow diplomatic efforts for peace to continue.

Soon the White House and Trump himself confirmed intense ongoing negotiations.

Finally, it was Trump himself who announced, to the surprise of many, a two-week ceasefire by mutual agreement, with Iran agreeing to open the Strait of Hormuz, the crux of the matter, while U.S. attacks cease.

Shortly after Trump's announcement, Iran confirmed that it accepted the ceasefire and would guarantee passage through Hormuz as long as it coordinated with the Iranian military.

While attacks rained down on the president for his grandiloquent rhetoric—a characteristic that has become habitual in his second term—at the end of the day, the events unfolded far from what critics thought: there was no bombing, no genocide, and no destroyed civilization. There was, instead, diplomacy, an interim agreement and more time to seek a more lasting peace.