We’re mere days from Jan. 20, 2025, the second inauguration of Donald Trump — this time as America’s 47th president. It is much anticipated by all, with some jubilant and others dreading the moment. But it ought to be much anticipated for a remarkable deadline Trump has given for that day. It was a deadline that he gave during a wild news conference Jan. 6.

Like many Trump episodes, that news conference was at times entertaining and other times sur­real. It included bursts of pure insanity. Trump talked about everything from seizing the Panama Canal and Greenland to renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” and even making Canada a 51st state, by use of “economic force” if necessary. I nearly wrecked the car when I heard that one.

With all of that said, I was particularly struck by a remarkable threat and deadline the incoming president made to Hamas at that news conference. Trump vowed that if the hostages still being held in Gaza by Hamas are not released by the time of his inauguration, “all hell will break out in the Middle East.” He threatened: “It will not be good for Hamas. … All hell will break out. I don’t have to say anymore, but that’s what it is.”

It was an extraordinary statement. It harkens to what happened Jan. 20, 1981, at the time of Ronald Reagan’s inauguration.

For 444 days, 52 American hostages had been held captive by Islamist fanatics in Tehran. And yet, the very moment Reagan swore the oath of office, the hostages were freed. The next day’s headline beamed across The New York Times: “Reagan Takes Oath as 40th President; Promises an ‘Era of National Renewal’; Minutes Later, 52 U.S. Hostages in Iran Fly to Freedom After 444-Day Ordeal.”

It has long been a source of debate, controversy and even conspiracy as to what exactly the incoming Reagan team might have done to precipitate that release. This is not the place to take a deep dive.

But more to my point, Ronald Reagan — like Donald Trump — made threats to the hostage-takers. In March 1980, Reagan publicly stated the United States should issue a deadline for the hostages’ release and take “unpleasant action” against Iran if the deadline was not met. Like Trump today, Reagan didn’t describe what that action might look like. He didn’t need to.

In December 1980, Reagan explicitly warned: “There should be no delay in freeing the hostages.”

It turned out the Iranians listened. There was no delay whatsoever. They freed the hostages immediately as Reagan was sworn in.

One could argue the hostage situation with Hamas is actually far worse from a humanitarian perspective. Though the U.S. hostages in Iran were bound and tied and not treated well, they were not tortured. Conversely, the Hamas hostages have been beaten, raped, brutal­ized, killed. The Hamas captors are savages.

Trump acknowledged just that in his news conference. And so, like Ronald Reagan, he wants a release very soon. He has set a deadline: Jan. 20, 2025. Not unlike Jan. 20, 1981. If the hostages aren’t freed, he vows, all hell will break loose. What that looks like remains to be seen.

Things could get very interesting very soon.

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