“Iran Warned It Will Sink USS Ford With 5,000 Sailors If Trump Hits Tehran Power Grid”

14 March 2026, Blackbox Money and Collapse Codex

On March 13th, a Pentagon memo leaked outlining a strike plan titled “Tehran Power Grid Neutralization.”

The plan: hit 12 power stations around Tehran with precision munitions.

Effect: 9 million people without electricity for 3-6 weeks.

Goal: cripple Iranian command and control. Risk assessment buried in the memo:

“High probability of Iranian retaliation against U.S. naval assets.”

On March 14th, IRGC Commander Hossein Salami responded directly:

“If the United States strikes Tehran’s power infrastructure and puts our capital in darkness, we will sink the USS Gerald R. Ford with every sailor aboard. We have the missiles. We have the targeting data. We have the will.”

The USS Ford carries 4,539 crew plus 2,500 air wing personnel. Typically 4,500-5,000 people aboard at any time. If Iran sinks the Ford, it becomes the deadliest single day for U.S. military since the Battle of Antietam 1862 — worse than Pearl Harbor’s 2,403 killed. This is not hypothetical. This is Iran’s top military commander naming the specific ship, the specific consequence, the specific number of lives.

Iran already hit the Ford once (March 11th—drone struck flight deck, fuel fire, 400 evacuated). Proved Aegis defense cannot stop sea-skimming threats. Iran has Khorramshahr-4 ballistic missiles with cluster warheads: one missile becomes 10 submunitions at 7km altitude. Launch 20 missiles = 200 submunitions. Aegis engages maybe 150-160. But 40-50 get through. Forty warheads hitting a carrier = sinking with 5,000 aboard.

Iran’s warning track record: warned Strait of Hormuz closure—closed it. Warned U.S. base strikes — hit Prince Sultan (Saudi), Al Dhafra (UAE, 7 F-35s destroyed). When Iran warns, it follows through. Pentagon memo leaked March 13th. Iran’s threat issued March 14th (12 hours later). Someone inside Pentagon wants this debate public. Trump now faces impossible choice: authorize strike and risk 5,000 lives, or back down and prove threatening American casualties works as deterrent.

Trump’s advisors divided. Some support strike: “cripple Tehran, end the war.”]” Others oppose: “humanitarian catastrophe, unacceptable retaliation risk.” Trump reportedly asked:

“If they sink the Ford, what do we do?”

Answer: full-scale war (possibly nuclear [Trump is considering the possibility of escalating this war to the nuclear level; that’s how crazy and evil he is. I hope that Putin and/or Xi have told Trump they’ll nuke DC and Tel Aviv if he or Netanyahu nukes Iran.]) or withdraw from Gulf entirely.

Neither politically survivable. UAE just gave U.S. 48 hours to leave Al Dhafra. Saudi wavering on Prince Sultan. Qatar nervous about Al Udeid. Gulf coalition collapsing. Trump’s decision on Tehran power grid could determine if U.S. wins or loses entire Middle East posture.

SOURCES: Reuters leaked Pentagon memo March 13 2026, IRGC Commander Hossein Salami press conference March 14 2026, USS Ford crew specifications, Khorramshahr-4 technical capabilities, Pearl Harbor casualty records.

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Comment from Eric Zuesse

What I interjected there is worth repeating:

“Trump is considering the possibility of escalating this war to the nuclear level; that’s how crazy and evil he is. I hope that Putin and/or Xi have told Trump they’ll nuke DC and Tel Aviv if he or Netanyahu nukes Iran.”

Like I headlined earlier today, “Even Wikipedia Acknowledges U.S. Invasion of Iran Is War-Criminal”. But is Trump willing to go nuclear in order not to lose this war of aggression that he and Netanyahu initiated on February 28th?

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This commentary was first published on the author’s Substack.

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse’s latest book, AMERICA’S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler’s Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world’s wealth by control of not only their ‘news’ media but the social ‘sciences’ — duping the public.

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