This is an adapted excerpt from the April 7 episode of “All In with Chris Hayes,” guest-hosted by Ayman Mohyeldin.

For days, the entire world waited as the president of the United States threatened to kill an entire population.

Donald Trump — a man who has gone bankrupt six times, has been impeached twice and has 34 felony convictions — set a deadline for Iran to end the war that he started. The ultimatum: “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again.”

But on Tuesday, less than two hours before his arbitrary deadline, the president changed his mind (again). After threatening to destroy an entire country’s civilian infrastructure, including power plants and bridges; after promising genocide, Trump got himself an extension.

Tuesday’s threat and the eleventh-hour walkback that followed were just the latest examples of a pattern we’ve seen from Trump.

He now claims a peace settlement is within reach, following an agreement brokered by Pakistan to stop bombing Iran for two weeks, as long as Iran promises to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

But what will happen in two weeks? That all will depend on the whims of the most powerful — and arguably most unstable — leader in the world.

On Tuesday, Iranian media showed people forming human chains around power plants and on bridges to deter Trump from bombing them. In response, Trump told NBC News the human chains were “totally illegal,” adding, “They’re not allowed to do that.”

On Capitol Hill, a growing chorus of more than 70 Democrats has demanded Trump’s removal from office for threatening to kill an entire civilization. A few Republicans have spoken out against the president’s threats, too, but that was before Trump delayed his threats for another two weeks.

The president is belligerent and erratic. Tuesday’s threat and the eleventh-hour walkback that followed were just the latest examples of a pattern we’ve seen from Trump over the past few weeks.

On March 21, Trump posted, “If Iran doesn’t FULLY OPEN, WITHOUT THREAT, the Strait of Hormuz, within 48 HOURS from this exact point in time, the United States of America will hit and obliterate their various POWER PLANTS, STARTING WITH THE BIGGEST ONE FIRST!”

He publicly threatened to commit a war crime and gave Iran until the evening of March 23 to respond. 

But 12 hours before that deadline, Trump announced that talks were actually going great and that he would extend the deadline to March 26. At the time, Iranian officials denied there had been any talks at all.

The world is living from social media post to social media post while Trump’s threats grow increasingly dangerous.

As that new deadline loomed, just hours after Trump threatened that there was “NO TURNING BACK, and it won’t be pretty,” he extended the deadline again, to April 6, saying negotiations were “going very well.”

That deadline was supposed to be Tuesday. But on Easter Sunday, he changed his mind again. In a profanity-laced post, Trump wrote, “Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!! Open the F—in’ Strait, you crazy bastards, or you’ll be living in Hell – JUST WATCH!” Then he added, “Praise be to Allah.”

Then, as that deadline loomed, he threatened to kill “a whole civilization.”

Would you trust any negotiations to this man? No, you would call the authorities on him. But the problem is,  Trump is the authority, which is why the world is living from social media post to social media post while his threats grow increasingly dangerous.

We have crossed a line, no matter what happens next. The man with sole authority to launch the largest nuclear arsenal in history will either make good on his threats in another two weeks, which would be the genocidal behavior of a madman; or he won’t, which would mean he held the entire world hostage, making increasingly bloodthirsty threats every few days — threats that must taken seriously, because he’s the president of the United States.

He has threatened to end civilizations because he can. Because he has never faced any serious consequences for any of the heinous actions he has taken as president.

But throughout this whole ordeal, one thing has become painfully clear: whether or not Trump actually commits more atrocities against Iranians, Trump has destroyed everything that made America better than him.

Allison Detzel contributed.

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