Tensions with Iran remain high, but on Saturday's edition of MS NOW’s The Weekend, former Time editor turned Obama State Department official turned MS NOW analyst [the revolving door whirrs!] Richard Stengel found the real villain: President Trump’s blunt deterrent threat. Stengel denounced Trump’s warning that the U.S. would respond forcefully if Iran succeeded in assassinating him. According to the New York Post, Trump said he has left standing instructions to “just literally bomb them at levels that they’ve never seen before.” He reiterated the point on Truth Social, declaring “1,000 missiles are locked and loaded” should Iran act on its threats against the sitting president. Stengel’s verdict? That amounts to “threatening genocide.” He called the language “incredibly vulgar and undiplomatic,” adding that it was “more than unseemly” for an American president to issue such a threat “in case he’s assassinated.” You know what else is vulgar, undiplomatic and maybe just a tad "unseemly," Richard? Assassinating the sitting President of the United States. Stengel did slip in a concession: “The Iranians aren’t good guys," and are long-time leaders of global terrorism. The fanatics in Tehran aren't "good guys?" Bold diplomatic démarche there, Richard! Under Obama and Stengel, the bad guys in Iran were treated like good guys.  We don't recall Stengel — or his former bosses — ever branding as “genocide” the civilian-targeted bombings ordered by Democratic presidents Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman. The firebombing of Dresden and the atomic strikes on Hiroshima and Nagasaki killed an estimated quarter-million civilians. Yet Trump’s warning of devastating retaliation against a terror-sponsoring regime killing the sitting U.S. president somehow crosses a bright line for Stengel.   MS NOW's Stengel: Trump's Retaliation For Iran Assassination Attempt Would Be 'Genocide' pic.twitter.com/HYifX5eBKR — Mark Finkelstein (@markfinkelstein) July 11, 2026 What would Stengel consider an appropriate American response if Iran actually managed to assassinate the President of the United States? Recalling our negotiators—strongly worded letter to follow? For Stengel and his MS NOW colleagues, tough deterrence is apparently more frightening than the very real Iranian threats that prompted it. President Trump, true to form, is making clear that America will not absorb the killing of its Commander-in-Chief with polite restraint—seemliness be damned!