Trump proclaims US will be reimbursed 20% for | Political News

In a new Truth Social post, President Donald Trump claims that the U.S. will charge 20% to each cargo ship passing through the Strait of Hormuz, including that America will “be the guardian” of the ultra-important waterway.

Trump also says that the Strait of Hormuz will keep open regardless of Iran, while the U.S. would reimpose a blockade aimed only at Iranian ships and their prospects. He proposes the US act as the “guardian” of the strait, letting other international locations use it freely, but charging a 20% price on all cargo transiting to cowl security prices, with the plan beginning immediately.

“The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran. We are reinstating the THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE, so named because it is only stopping Iran’s ships or customers from entering or leaving. All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait. The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as ‘THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT,’ but as such, and as a matter of FAIRNESS, will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World. The process and formation will begin immediately. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP.”

Trump said on Monday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox and Friends” that the U.S. was taking over the Strait. He added that “everything was agreed to” in an 11-hour meeting Sunday, but Iranian negotiators called back later “and they say, ‘we had to make a couple of changes.” He didn’t specify details.

“We’re going to keep the strait, and we’ll probably run it,” Trump said. “We’ll become the guardian of the strait — maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the strait. And we should be reimbursed for that.”

“We can’t be expected to do that for nothing, unlike we had for many years,” Trump added. “We guarded it for nothing, and now we’re going to guard it, we’re going to get paid for guarding it. A lot of money.”

Both the U.S. and Iran asserted Monday that they controlled the Strait of Hormuz after a weekend of attacks stretching across the wider Middle East, further threatening any diplomacy to end the war.

Mohammed Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader Mojtaba Khamenei, says Tehran will fight for the Strait of Hormuz. “We defend it so that in the future, for the passage of our ships, we are not forced to pay tribute to the enemy!” he wrote on X. “Retreating from this vital matter has no place in the mind of any friend of Iran.”

The latest exchange was sparked by an Iranian attack on a container ship on Sunday in the strait, a critical waterway for international oil and gas over which Iran has asserted control since the United States and Israel started the war on Feb. 28.

A fifth of the world’s oil and gas passed through the strait without paying any fees before Iran asserted control over it after the start of the war.

Iran says it has the right to manage traffic through the strait and potentially charge fees in accordance with an interim peace deal reached last month. The U.S. and others dispute that, citing international law on freedom of navigation, and the American military has tried to establish an alternative route outside of Iranian control.

The European Union’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, called for the strait to be open, as it was before the warfare. “Freedom of navigation has to be respected,” she said.