Sky News ground to a halt as they issued a breaking news alert from Washington that left Donald Trump ‘absolutely humiliated’. On Monday (April 6), the US President sparked fears of World War 3 after the 79-year-old leader appeared to set “Tuesday, 8:00PM Eastern Time (1am Wednesday morning in the UK)” as the new deadline for Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. In an expletive-ridden post on Truth Social, the politician threatened to destroy Iran’s power plants and bridges if this deadline failed to be met and repeated an earlier threat to unleash “hell”.
However, he told US media there was a “good chance” of a deal with Tehran. Trump’s expletive post began: “Open the F***in’ Strait, you crazy b******s, or you’ll be living in hell”. Ending his explosive post with: “Praise be to Allah.”
Now, Jacquie Beltrao returned to the airwaves, issuing a major update from across the pond. Reflecting on the latest updates on the conflict, she began: “When you listen to the rhetoric coming out of Washington, and the rhetoric coming out of Iran, both sides doubling down on these threats and this explosive language, the mudslinging, the insults, it really does also feel quite wishful thinking that they’re going to be able to come up with some sort of diplomatic breakthrough in the next 24 hours.
“This is something that he can really lean into as a huge success story for the US military, especially in the context of a broader conflict where he doesn’t appear to be fully in control anymore, certainly over the critical issue of the Strait of Hormuz.”
It didn’t take long before viewers flocked to X – formerly known as Twitter – to share their thoughts on the update online. One user penned: “Absolute humiliation for the White House on Sky News.
“A top correspondent reveals Donald Trump is desperately using a single pilot rescue as a PR stunt to distract from the fact that he has completely lost control of the broader war and the Strait of Hormuz.”
Another agreed: “That’s what happens when you’ve sacked all the actual generals of experience & all the team of professionals and left it all with a madman. What did they expect?”
Trump posted the extraordinary threat on Easter Sunday (April 5), less than 12 hours after he announced the successful rescue mission of the missing US fighter pilot.
Iran remained defiant, showing no willingness to back down; it carried out strikes on economic and infrastructure targets in neighbouring Gulf Arab states.
Meanwhile, Iran’s joint military command warned it would intensify attacks on regional oil and civilian infrastructure if the US and Israel target such sites, according to state television.
