Trump threatened apocalypse, then blinked. What that means for US power

ET Bureau

Apr 9, 2026 | 14:21 IST

Illustration: AI

The civilisation POTUS warned about didn’t die on Wednesday. But something else took a serious blow: credibility of US military power as an instrument of policy

On Wednesday (April 8), the digital sphere was rattled by an apocalyptic Trump declaration: ‘A whole civilisation will die tonight, never to be brought back again.’ Had that threat been fully realised, Trump might have carved his name alongside Ögedei Khan, the 13th -c. Mongol conqueror, whose campaigns nearly erased the Persianate world.

TOI

TOI

Trump threatened apocalypse, then blinked. What that means for US power

The civilisation POTUS warned about didn’t die on Wednesday. But something else took a serious blow: credibility of US military power as an instrument of policy

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TOI

Trump threatened apocalypse, then blinked. What that means for US power

The civilisation POTUS warned about didn’t die on Wednesday. But something else took a serious blow: credibility of US military power as an instrument of policy

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