Impeach him. Remove him. Restrain him.

A president who threatens to destroy a civilization is unfit beyond argument.

To Congress, the Cabinet, and the Officer Corps of the United States military:

This sounds like a threat to use nuclear weapons. It’s unquestionably a threat to commit genocide. Whether he’s serious or not, anyone who makes threats like this is an enemy of humanity. Donald Trump must be removed as President, immediately, to prevent a catastrophe from which our country—and perhaps our species—will never recover.

A man who possesses the power to use nuclear weapons and speaks of the death of a civilization as though he were plugging a prime-time finale is unfit for office beyond dispute. He is morally unfit, intellectually unfit, and temperamentally unfit. He is also, clearly, cognitively impaired. He is a danger to the republic and to the world. No one entrusted with the powers of the American presidency should ever be permitted to speak of civilizational destruction as spectacle.

Don’t dismiss this as “he’s just bluffing.” You don’t know.

To Congress: If you fail to impeach him by nightfall, you’re responsible for the consequences. If you don’t act now, don’t even dream of telling us later that no one could have known, that no one could have foreseen, that events moved too quickly. Believe me, we will hold you—every one of you—accountable for anything he does.

Even if he does nothing, it is intolerable for the president to make threats like this. We can’t take another two and a half years of this. We just can’t.

To the Cabinet: Invoke the Twenty-Fifth Amendment, now. This is the test. Not of the president, who has already failed it, but of everyone around him. Failing to invoke the 25th Amendment under these circumstances is an unforgivable violation of your oath to your country and your responsibility to the human race.

JD Vance: You once asked if Trump was America’s Hitler. If he gives this order, that’s exactly what he will be. You once knew better. Find yourself, for God’s sake.

It’s intolerable for Congress to sit on its hands while the president threatens the Iranian people with genocide. It’s intolerable for the cabinet to continue with the pretense that Donald Trump is in possession of his faculties. He obviously is not. He’s impaired and profoundly dangerous. He is perfectly capable of giving the order to carry out this threat. The threat alone may constitute a war crime: Under the laws of war, committing “acts or threats of violence the primary purpose of which is to spread terror among the civilian population” is prohibited. (Article 51(2) of Additional Protocol I.)

I have confidence that the military would never obey such an order. But if I’m wrong, and if by chance you’re in the chain of command, don’t doubt for a minute that if you do, you will be known to history exactly the way those who followed Hitler’s orders are known.

And you, like them, will be hanged.