{"id":46986,"date":"2026-08-15T17:02:44","date_gmt":"2026-08-15T12:02:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=46986"},"modified":"2026-08-15T17:02:44","modified_gmt":"2026-08-15T12:02:44","slug":"state-of-hormuz-trump-jokes-about-annexing-middle-east-waterway-at-heart-of-iran-war","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=46986","title":{"rendered":"State of Hormuz? Trump jokes about annexing Middle East waterway at heart of Iran war"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/14\/AP26226728739736_s1440x963.jpg?6fb357e90856e447e826abad217089687abef4b1\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>President Trump says he might declare the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/strait-of-hormuz\/\">Strait of Hormuz<\/a> a \u201cterritory of the United States\u201d and that a bit more pain at the pump for Americans will be worth keeping a nuclear weapon out of Iran\u2019s hands.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Trump joked about annexing the Middle East waterway during a New York speech Friday about crime in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPretty soon, I\u2019ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,\u201d Mr. Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>The president based his boast on the performance of a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports and shipping.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe blockade is unstoppable,\u201d Mr. Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>Iran has rejected Mr. Trump\u2019s claim of control of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/strait-of-hormuz\/\">Strait of Hormuz<\/a>, saying ships can only pass through the waterway with their authorization.<\/p>\n<p>Control of the waterway has become the main point of contention in the conflict, which began Feb. 28 with Mr. Trump\u2019s decision to join forces with Israel and bomb Iran.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Mr. Trump\u2019s goal is to prevent Tehran from getting a nuclear weapon. Yet Iran\u2019s decision to harass shipping in the strait turned the conflict into an economic battle. The disruptions in the strait have forced Gulf nations to find new routes for oil and caused crude and gasoline prices to spike.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo, for you to pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline \u2014 Just remember, you\u2019re doing it so that a very evil country cannot have \u2026 a nuclear weapon,\u201d Mr. Trump said.<\/p>\n<p>The average U.S. price of gas stood at $4.08 per gallon on Friday, relatively unchanged from one day prior but a 37% increase from when the war started, according to AAA motor club.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile gasoline demand is down, crude oil prices are keeping pump prices higher than normal for this time of year,\u201d AAA wrote Thursday in a blog post. \u201cSo far, this is the highest August on record when it comes to the national gasoline average.\u201d<\/p>\n<section class=\"author-contact-section\">\n<\/section><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Trump says he might declare the Strait of Hormuz a \u201cterritory of the United States\u201d and that a bit more pain at the pump for Americans will be worth keeping a nuclear weapon out of Iran\u2019s hands. Mr. Trump joked about annexing the Middle East waterway during a New York speech Friday about crime&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":46987,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/14\/AP26226728739736_c0-153-3581-2241_s1200x700.jpg?8d26b7f736ddfa8ccd7cd05af9703e495b22ccf8","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/46987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}