President Donald Trump appeared to implicitly threaten to leave America’s allies to their own devices as far as getting oil moving through a key waterway after his war against Iran is over — even as he struggled to spell the waterway’s name.
Writing on Truth Social early Wednesday, Trump mused: “I wonder what would happen if we ‘finished off’ what's left of the Iranian Terror State, and let the Countries that use it, we don't, be responsible for the so called ‘Straight?’ That would get some of our non-responsive "Allies" in gear, and fast!!!”
The president was referring to the Strait of Hormuz, an important maritime choke point that connects the Persian Gulf with the open ocean. It is a key transit way for oil tankers leaving the region en route to ports around the world and sees about a fifth of the world’s oil supply pass through it each year.
It is also one that both he and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have repeatedly referred to using the misnomer Straits of Hormuz.
But since the start of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran on Feb. 28, Iran has been holding traffic in the strait hostage by threatening mine or missile attacks against tankers and other merchant shipping other than those ships operated by or serving allies.
Trump, who later corrected the misspelling in a second Truth Social post, has appeared to fixate on how to properly refer to the waterway in recent days as U.S. allies have rejected his demand that they contribute naval assets to escort ships through the strait.
During a press conference on Monday, he referred to it as the “Hormuz straits” twice during an impromptu press conference with Kennedy Center board members, and later in the day at a second media availability he seemed to mock the idea of referring to the waterway properly as he discussed how “many” countries get “a tremendous percentage of their oil ... from the straits — or as they call it, the strait.”
Regardless of spelling, his Truth Social post appeared to suggest that he is willing to allow Iran — or its’ proxies — to take control of the key maritime passage after the U.S. wraps up the bombing campaign his administration has dubbed Operation Epic Fury at some point in the future.
Since the weekend, he has fumed over his lack of progress in obtaining help to protect oil tankers that have been threatened by Iran as a result of the war he launched just over two weeks ago, telling reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday that the U.S. did not need “any help” from allies after his pleas for assistance were uniformly rejected by nearly all of America’s traditional allies.
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Speaking alongside Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin during a bilateral meeting, Trump said: “we don't need too much help, and we don't need any help” after he was asked whether he’d been able to enlist any other nations to help escort tankers through the strait.
He also expressed astonishment that NATO allies would not simply obey his request as if it were a command, citing the American troop presence in Europe that has served as a deterrent against the U.S.S.R. and later Russia since the end of the Second World War.
“Despite the fact that we help them so much ... they don't want to help us, which is amazing,” he said.
He added that the alliance is “making a very foolish mistake” and again repeated his claim that his call for assistance was a “test.”
His assertion that the U.S. does not need any assistance to protect commercial shipping in the strait — a key choke point for a fifth of the world’s oil supply — came just days after he urged “China, France, Japan, South Korea, the U.K. and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint” to send ships to escort oil tankers after Iran effectively blockaded the narrow waterway.
Multiple ships have been struck by projectiles since the start of the war on February 28, while Iran has allowed tankers serving China and India to pass unmolested because they are carrying Iranian oil.
The result has been economic upheaval, with global oil prices skyrocketing and gasoline prices following suit in rapid succession.
Despite Trump’s claim that the U.S. doesn’t need help with the strait, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Fox News on Wednesday that Trump and top aides, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Hegseth, “continue to be in touch with their counterparts in Europe and of course our allies in Arab and gulf region for their help in securing the Strait of Hormuz.”
She claimed doing so would be “to their benefit” and suggested that the U.S. does not need to resolve the situation because it is a net exporter of oil even though the backup in the strait contributes to higher oil prices globally, and slammed NATO as an “unfair alliance.”
“You look at some of the trade deals with NATO allies. The president has worked to renegotiate and reset those to make them more fair for the American people and workers. You look at the fact that the United States has thousands of troops ... on NATO soil. We’re paying these countries billions of dollars and our troops on their soil serves as a deterrent for them,” Leavitt said.
“And the president wants the American tax payer and our American military to be treated fairly, he feels sometimes with NATO they are not. And he’s right to call that out and he’s right to call on them to step up and do more. Especially when reopening the strait benefits them even more than it does the United States of America.”
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