President Donald Trump announced on Saturday that “many countries” will be dispatching warships to patrol the Strait of Hormuz amid the ongoing conflict with Iran, suggesting that it is “still easy” for its military to inflict damage on vessels there “no matter how badly defeated they are.”
Writing on Truth Social, Trump stated:
Many Countries, especially those who are affected by Iran’s attempted closure of the Hormuz Strait, will be sending War Ships, in conjunction with the United States of America, to keep the Strait open and safe. We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability, but it’s easy for them to send a drone or two, drop a mine, or deliver a close range missile somewhere along, or in, this Waterway, no matter how badly defeated they are.
The president continued, “Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others, that are affected by this artificial constraint, will send Ships to the area so that the Hormuz Strait will no longer be a threat by a Nation that has been totally decapitated.”
“In the meantime,” he added, “the United States will be bombing the hell out of the shoreline, and continually shooting Iranian Boats and Ships out of the water,” Trump continued. “One way or the other, we will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE!”
In a statement purported to be from Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran’s new “supreme leader” ordered on Thursday that the strait remain closed as long as the war continues.
Khamenei hasn’t been seen in public since the joint U.S.-Israeli operation began, and reports have also surfaced that he may be seriously injured, even disfigured and in a coma, and actually may not be in charge of anything.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent proposed on Thursday that an “international coalition” could escort oil tankers through the strait, something he said would have a “big effect.”
The president’s announcement comes in the wake of surging gasoline prices in the U.S. as well as the impact on prices of other petroleum-based goods such as fertilizer.
Some 20 percent of the world’s oil — around 20 million barrels per day — normally travels in tankers through the narrow corridor between Iran in the north and Oman and the United Arab Emirates in the south.
Those transits have all but stopped as the result of a number of ships being attacked in the region since Operation Epic Fury began on February 28.
Contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the author of the New York Times true crime best seller House of Secrets and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
