It was a stunning threat that promised to eliminate Iranian civilization, delivered with all the casual callousness that has become President Trump’s preferred style of communication.

这是一种令人震惊的威胁，扬言要消灭伊朗文明，并以特朗普总统惯用的那种轻描淡写的冷酷无情语气发出。

“A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

“今晚，整个文明将消亡，永不复返。”

And that is what passed as a normal Tuesday-morning update from the Trump White House: a warning of mass destruction and what international law would define as war crimes, blithely delivered on Truth Social, posted alongside ads for bullet-shaped pens, patriotic hats and a gala dinner at Mar-a-Lago.

这是特朗普白宫在一个普通的周二上午所做的日常更新：一则关于大规模毁灭的警告（按国际法可能被认定为战争罪），随意地发布在Truth Social平台上，而这些文字的旁边，就紧挨着子弹形状的钢笔、爱国主题的帽子和马阿拉歌庄园晚宴的营销广告。

“However, now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS?” Mr. Trump wrote in his message. “We will find out tonight, one of the most important moments in the long and complex history of the World.”

“不过，现在我们已经实现了彻底、完全的政权更迭，不同的、更聪明的、不那么激进的人占据上风，也许会发生某种具有革命性、极其美妙的事情，谁知道呢？”特朗普在帖子中写道。“我们今夜就会看到，这是漫长复杂的世界历史上最为重要的时刻。”

The message arrived two days after Mr. Trump marked Easter Sunday by calling on the Iranians to end its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz: “Open the Fuckin’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell — JUST WATCH! Praise be to Allah,” he wrote.

这条消息发出的两天前，特朗普在纪念复活节时呼吁伊朗结束对霍尔木兹海峡的封锁。他写道：“把这他妈的海峡打开，你们这些疯狂的混蛋，否则你们会生活在地狱里——等着瞧吧！赞美真主。”

In the minds of the president and his supporters, the post is all part of Mr. Trump’s chaotic negotiation style, intended to prompt an end to his self-inflicted conflict and persuade Tehran to open the strait. Some of the president’s advisers saw Mr. Trump’s escalating rhetoric as a negotiating tactic that suggested he was more interested in finding a way out of the war than following through with a devastating attack.

在总统及其支持者看来，这条帖子不过是特朗普混乱谈判风格的一部分，旨在结束这场他自己引发的冲突，并促使德黑兰开放海峡。总统的一些顾问认为，特朗普不断升级的言论是一种谈判策略，表明他更有兴趣找到一条结束战争的出路，而非真的发动毁灭性打击。

On Tuesday evening, Mr. Trump had toggled back to diplomat mode, announcing that he had agreed to a proposal by Pakistan that calls for a two-week cease-fire and the immediate opening of the Strait of Hormuz.

而到了周二晚间，特朗普又切换回外交模式，宣布已同意巴基斯坦提出的方案，即实施为期两周的停火，并立即开放霍尔木兹海峡。

The president said that the United States would work on finalizing an agreement with Iran. “It is an Honor to have this Longterm problem close to resolution,” he wrote.

总统表示，美国将着手敲定一项与伊朗的协议。“为这一长期问题即将得到解决而深感荣幸，”他写道。

Even for Mr. Trump, who has a long history of comments that fly far beyond the pale, his latest comments bear the mark of an impulsive leader who is used to getting his way through coercion and unpredictability, but who is not getting his way now.

即便是对一向言论出格的特朗普来说，他最近这些表态也带有一种冲动型领导人的鲜明印记，这种领导者习惯于通过胁迫和不可预测性来达到目的，但眼下这些手段却失灵了。

周一，特朗普在白宫的一场媒体吹风会上。

Alex Wellerstein, a historian who studies nuclear conflicts, said that even if Mr. Trump does not carry out the extent of his threat, the president’s violent rhetoric damages his credibility as a negotiator and his country’s standing in the world.

研究核冲突的历史学家亚历克斯·韦勒斯坦表示，即便特朗普最终没有把威胁落实到他说的那个程度，他这种充满暴力意味的言论也损害了他作为谈判者的信誉以及美国在世界上的地位。

“You’re talking about a world that largely increasingly sees the United States as unhinged and dangerous, and not a reliable partner,” he said, “where all of the countries that typically align with democracy and freedom are on the other side of the United States.”

“你面对的是一个越来越将美国视为失控、危险、不可靠伙伴的世界，”他说，“那些通常与民主和自由站在一起的国家现在都站在美国的对立面。”

Some of Mr. Trump’s most fervent supporters have joined the usual chorus of critics in recent days. Tucker Carlson, the right-wing podcaster, said that the president’s Easter message had “shattered” the holiest day on the Christian calendar.

近几天，特朗普一些最狂热的支持者也加入了批评者的队伍。右翼播客主持人塔克·卡尔森表示，总统在复活节当天发布的那条信息“毁掉了”基督教日历上最神圣的一天。

“It is vile on every level,” Mr. Carlson said on his podcast. “It begins with a promise to use the U.S. military, our military, to destroy civilian infrastructure in another country, which is to say to commit a war crime, a moral crime against the people of the country, whose welfare, by the way, was one of the reasons we supposedly went into this war in the first place.”

“这在各个层面上都令人不齿，”卡尔森在自己的播客中说，“它以扬言动用美国军队——我们的军队——去摧毁另一个国家的民用基础设施开头，也就是说，去犯下战争罪，去对那个国家的民众犯下道德罪行。而顺便提一句，那些人的福祉，本是我们当初宣称加入这场战争的原因之一。”

The president responded by calling Mr. Carlson a “low I.Q. person,” and continuing on with his war. Ever a reality television producer, Mr. Trump is trying to program this war like he does everything else — through cliffhangers and wait-and-see diplomacy. As such, Mr. Trump created an 8 p.m. Eastern deadline Tuesday for Tehran to comply. Mr. Trump announced “a double sided CEASEFIRE” about 90 minutes before his self-imposed deadline.

总统则回应称卡尔森是个“脑子不灵光的人”，并继续推进他的战争。作为一名曾经的真人秀制片人，特朗普正试图像操控其他一切事务那样来操控这场战争——靠制造悬念和“走着瞧”式外交。因此，特朗普把美国东部时间周二晚上8点设为德黑兰必须服从的最后期限。就在这个由他自己设定的最后期限前大约90分钟，特朗普宣布达成了“一项双边停火协议”。

周一，德黑兰在空袭中受损的建筑。

Americans have seen versions of this playbook before: Mr. Trump makes increasingly escalatory threats, secures some semblance of a deal and walks away declaring victory. In January, Mr. Trump threatened to send in U.S. forces to capture the Danish territory of Greenland. He settled for an agreement to increase the number of American troops there.

美国人以前就见识过这种套路：特朗普不断升级威胁，最终达成某种形式的协议，然后转身宣布取得了胜利。今年1月，特朗普威胁要派美军占领丹麦领地格陵兰岛。他最终满足于达成一项增加美国驻军人数的协议。

With Iran, though, there is still little evidence that Mr. Trump is going to ultimately get what he wants. Ebrahim Zolfaghari, a spokesman for the Iranian military, has said that Iran would retaliate “crushingly and extensively” if its civilian infrastructure were attacked.

但在伊朗问题上，目前几乎没有证据表明特朗普最终能得到他想要的东西。伊朗军方发言人易卜拉欣·佐尔法加里表示，如果民用基础设施遭到攻击，伊朗将进行“毁灭性的、大规模的”报复。

Even with a cease-fire, Mr. Trump is far from achieving his larger strategic objectives.

即便达成了停火，特朗普距离实现他的更大战略目标仍相去甚远。

The president’s increasingly violent messaging betrays a degree of frustration that he has not gotten what he wanted after pushing back an earlier deadline to barrage the country’s infrastructure. His threats to level power plants and oil installations and bridges have seemed to have the opposite effect on some Iranians, who have formed human chains around points of infrastructure that support civilian life.

总统越来越暴力的言论暴露出某种程度的挫败感——在推翻了此前对伊朗基础设施进行打击的最后期限之后，他并没有得到自己想要的东西。他发出的摧毁发电厂、石油设施和桥梁的威胁，似乎在一些伊朗民众身上产生了相反的效果——他们在支撑民生的基础设施周围组成了人链。

Even some people who have supported Mr. Trump in the past see his strategy on Iran, to the extent that there is one, as damaging and dangerous.

甚至一些过去支持特朗普的人也认为，他在伊朗问题上的策略——如果说存在策略的话——是有害且危险的。

“Trump believes he is threatening Iran with destruction, but it is America that now stands in danger,” Joe Kent, the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center who resigned in March, wrote on X. “If he attempts to eradicate Iranian civilization, the United States will no longer be viewed as a stabilizing force in the world, but as an agent of chaos — effectively ending our status as the world’s greatest superpower.”

“特朗普认为他是在用毁灭来威胁伊朗，但现在处于危险之中的反而是美国，”3月份辞职的国家反恐中心前主任乔·肯特在X上写道。“如果他试图消灭伊朗文明，美国将不再被视为世界上的稳定力量，而是混乱的根源——这实际上将终结我们作为世界头号超级大国的地位。”

Several Republicans in Congress, who are absent from Washington during a two-week recess, criticized the president’s rhetoric, although many of them have stayed mum.

在为期两周的休会期间离开华盛顿的多名国会共和党人批评了总统的言论，不过其中许多人仍保持沉默。

Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, a close ally of Mr. Trump’s, left room for the possibility that Mr. Trump was posturing: “I hope and pray that President Trump is just using this as bluster.”

威斯康星州参议员、特朗普的亲密盟友罗恩·约翰逊为特朗普是在虚张声势的可能性留出了空间：“我希望并祈祷特朗普总统只是把这当作恫吓。”

Mr. Trump’s message also alarmed top Democrats, who quickly promised to force another vote on a resolution to rein in the use of the military in Iran.

特朗普的言论也让民主党高层感到震惊，他们迅速表态，将推动再次就一项限制对伊朗动用军事力量的决议进行投票。

“This is an extremely sick person,” Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, wrote on X after Mr. Trump sent his threat. “Each Republican who refuses to join us in voting against this wanton war of choice owns every consequence of whatever the hell this is.”

“这是一个极其病态的人，”纽约州参议员、少数党领袖查克·舒默在特朗普发出威胁后于X平台上写道，“每一个拒绝与我们一起投票反对这场肆意妄为的选择性战争的共和党人，都要对这桩荒唐之举引发的一切后果承担责任。”

Other Democrats have called to remove Mr. Trump from office over his threats, with some calling for impeachment and others pointing to the 25th Amendment, which provides a process for a president to be stripped of power if he is “unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office.”

其他一些民主党人则呼吁因这些威胁将特朗普罢免，一些人主张弹劾，另一些人则援引第25修正案——该修正案规定，如果总统“无法履行其职权和职责”，可启动程序剥夺其权力。

They were joined by Marjorie Taylor Greene, the former Republican representative who has shifted from being one of Trump’s staunchest allies to being one of his most vocal detractors.

他们的呼声还得到了玛乔丽·泰勒·格林的呼应。这位前共和党众议员已从特朗普最坚定的盟友之一，转变为最直言不讳的批评者之一。

“25TH AMENDMENT!!!” she wrote on X. “Not a single bomb has dropped on America. We cannot kill an entire civilization. This is evil and madness.”

“第25修正案！！！”她在X平台上写道。“美国没有挨过一颗炸弹。我们不能消灭一整个文明。这是邪恶，也是疯狂。”