Trump Announces His Own Blockade of the Strait of Hormuz

After negotiations in Pakistan between the US and Iran yielded no tangible results, Donald Trump on Sunday announced that American warships would shut down what little maritime traffic there has been in the Strait of Hormuz. This will almost certainly result in a spike in oil prices, which had dropped earlier this week after the two countries reached an agreement on a two-week ceasefire.

While the president said that the peace summit “went well” and produced agreement on many items, Iran refused to give up its nuclear program, which Trump claimed to have “obliterated” last June and then again earlier this year.

As a result, the US will block “any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” the president stated. Iran had already shut down the key waterway in response to being attacked six weeks ago. Its move has resulted in massive economic turmoil across the globe.

While Trump maintains that the US is insulated from the effects of the mess he created, gas prices have gone up by more than a dollar, and inflation increased by 0.9 percent month-over-month in March to the highest level in almost two years.

Shutting down the Strait of Hormuz completely, which would primarily affect ships carrying Iranian oil as well as those that paid a toll to Tehran, will do nothing to reverse that trend. In a pair of social media posts, Trump suggested that he will chase down any vessels that did the latter.

“I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran. No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas,” he wrote. “We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the Straits. Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!”

Although Trump keeps insisting that the US does not need anything from the Middle East and doesn’t care about the Strait of Hormuz being open or closed, this is clearly not true.

The longer this war drags on and one of the world’s most important waterways is blocked, the worse it is for the entire global economy.

Domestically, that will translate to higher prices, not just for gasoline but also for just about everything else, e.g., anything produced in Asia and many agricultural products. In turn, that will lead to more dissatisfaction with Trump’s economic policies, which will make it much more challenging for Republicans to retain control of Congress in November.

While hardly any of them will dare to speak out about this, GOP lawmakers won’t have been excited to hear the president suggest on Fox News Sunday that gasoline prices “may even be a little bit higher” than now when Americans head to the polls then.

For now, the tenuous ceasefire appears to be holding reasonably well and might still give hope to the markets that the conflict could still be resolved diplomatically. However, in reality, very little is happening to suggest that this will be accomplished any time soon.