On Good Friday, the west wing of the White House is nearly deserted when Donald Trump learns that an American plane has been shot down over Iran. Two pilots are missing. For hours, the president storms against his aides and demands an immediate rescue operation. Issue: the United States has not set foot on Iranian soil since the Islamic revolution of 1979. His advisors decide to keep him out of real-time updates, judging that his impatience would be counterproductive. The first pilot is quickly recovered. It takes until Saturday night for the second one to be extracted after a high-risk operation. After two in the morning, Trump finally goes to bed, as reported by the Wall Street Journal in a major investigation. Six hours later, on Easter morning, he posts a very threatening message towards Tehran on Truth Social, his social network: “Open the damn Strait, you bunch of morons, or you will live in Hell. YOU WILL SEE!” adding: “Glory to Allah.” A risky move that triggers a flood of indignant calls from Republican senators and Christian leaders. When questioned by an advisor, Trump stands by his actions: he wanted to appear as unpredictable as possible to force the Iranians to negotiate. Two days later, on April 8, he goes even further and in a new ultimatum, threatens to destroy the Iranian civilization if no agreement is reached under d… Read more on ParisMatch.
/2026/04/18/69e3d43dac950199198435.jpg "War in the Middle East: French soldier killed in Lebanon, new blockade of the Strait of Hormuz… What to remember")
