Donald Trump’s ‘dangerous’ 3AM ‘locked and loaded’ war threat sets off alarm with ex-diplomat
U.S. President Donald Trump appeared at a press conference connected to a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida in late December 2025. Around the same time, his comments about Iran caused serious concern among foreign policy experts.
On Friday morning, a former leader of the Council on Foreign Relations reacted strongly to a report that Trump had threatened Iran with military action in a late-night post on his Truth Social account. The message was posted in the middle of the night and immediately raised alarms among people who closely follow global politics.
Richard Haass, clearly upset, spoke on the MSNBC program “Morning Joe” just hours after Trump’s post appeared online. He warned that the president’s words were reckless and could have deadly consequences. Haass said Trump was playing a very dangerous game, one that could easily end with innocent people losing their lives.
The show’s host, Jonathan Lemire, pointed out that Trump was awake at about 3 a.m. in Florida when he wrote the message. In the post, Trump claimed that if Iran were to violently kill peaceful protesters, the United States would step in to help them. He said the country was “locked and loaded” and ready to act, using aggressive language that sounded like a military threat.
Lemire told Haass that these were shocking words coming from a sitting U.S. president and asked him to explain what kind of impact they might have.
Haass responded by saying that the situation inside Iran is already very serious. He explained that while protests in Iran are not new, the current unrest is larger and more intense than before. Iran’s economy is in terrible shape, its currency has lost much of its value, and many people are angry and desperate. Against this backdrop, Haass said, a statement from the U.S. president promising help is extremely risky.
He warned that such comments could encourage more people to take to the streets, believing that the United States will protect them. If that happens, Haass said, those protesters could be brutally crushed by the Iranian government, leading to mass deaths. In his view, making promises like this without a clear plan puts lives at risk.
Haass also questioned how the United States could realistically use military force to protect millions of civilians protesting in city streets. He argued that there is no practical way to do that and that Trump’s words amount to empty and dangerous talk rather than serious policy.
Growing more animated, Haass said the president should stop posting impulsive messages online. He stressed that foreign policy should be handled carefully, through planning and diplomacy, not through emotional social media posts made in the middle of the night.
