President Donald Trump on Tuesday abandoned plans to charge fees for American policing of the Strait of Hormuz in lieu of inking new trade and investment deals with Gulf states.
The president, following the breakdown of the memorandum of understanding with Iran, has said that the United States will implement a blockade of Iranian-controlled shipping lanes while maintaining unencumbered commerce for other countries looking to make commercial use of the strait.
Still, despite guarantees from other top administration officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, that the international waterway would not be charged, Trump stated that the U.S. would collect a 20% “reimbursement fee” on cargo moving through the strait.
“Oil is flowing like never before, thanks to the awesome Power of the United States Military,” the president wrote on Truth Social Tuesday morning. “The Strait of Hormuz is open to ALL Ship traffic except for Iran — and that is because of their lying, violent, malicious leadership, which is taking them down the path of TOTAL DESTRUCTION.
“We will therefore have a FULL Blockade, but only on Ships coming to and from Iranian ports, or carrying anything have to do with Iranian cargo. Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,” he continued. “Those Investments will be MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future. As everyone is aware, we have the largest Dollar Investment into the United States, of any Country in History, but these new Investments will make that Number even larger, and we will see Factories, Plants, and Equipment pour into the United States at Historic levels, which will create additional millions of High Paying AMERICAN Jobs!
“America is WINNING again, winning like never before,” Trump concluded. “The days of Iran killing hundreds of thousands of people, including 52,000 protestors, are OVER and, most importantly, IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”
U.S. Central Command announced Monday that the American military will re-implement its blockade of the strait on Thursday at 4 p.m. ET.
TRUMP RETURNS TO WAR WITH IRAN FROM ‘POSITION OF STRENGTH’
Earlier Tuesday morning, the White House attributed the reopening of the strait to June’s positive inflation report.
“President Trump consistently said that, as traffic in the Strait of Hormuz normalizes, oil prices – and thus overall inflation – would plummet like a rock,” White House spokesman Kush Desai wrote in a statement. “The expectation-smashing June [consumer price index] report proves President Trump was right: driven by lower energy prices, inflation clocked its biggest drop since April 2020.”