President Trump said on Friday that he will make the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory after the war against Iran concludes.
“After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” Trump said during a speech in New York.
“Essentially that’s what we have. The blockade ‒ no ships get through,” he added.
Watch below:
Trump: After we finish defeating Iran, I will be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States. pic.twitter.com/8cu9gem82b
— Acyn (@Acyn) August 14, 2026
USA TODAY shared further:
Trump’s comments marked his latest escalation in rhetoric over the Strait of Hormuz, which he has claimed the United States has taken over and blocked Iranian ships from accessing. Trump has said the blockade of the strait, an international waterway that Iran relies on to transport oil shipments, has wrecked Tehran’s economy.
But Iran has rejected Trump’s characterization of the strait, asserting it is under the “complete management and control” of Iran and that no commercial ships can go through without Iran’s permission.
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“Oman and Iran share jurisdiction of the waterway,” The Hill stated.
The Strait of Hormuz is located between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman and notably transports about 20 percent of the world’s oil and gas.
“We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. Do we agree?” Trump added.
Watch below:
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump says he's soon going to "declare the Hormuz Strait as a territory of the United States"
TRUMP (chuckling): "Essentially, that's what it is. We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to."
We'll see how serious he actually was… pic.twitter.com/i1ELHFaKrz
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) August 14, 2026
The Hill noted:
Trump has said since the conflict started roughly six months ago that the U.S. has controlled the strait. He deployed a U.S. naval blockade in the strait twice, claiming U.S. supremacy over the transit of oil exports from the region.
Iran has pushed back on Trump’s claims that the U.S. controls the waterway. In a post on the social platform X on Wednesday, Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority said that whoever owns it does “not change the reality: the Strait of Hormuz remains blocked and will not be reopened until Iran’s conditions are accepted.”
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