‘We’ll become the guardian of the strait … and we should be reimbursed for that,’ the U.S. president said Monday.
President Donald Trump on Monday said that the United States will try to take control of the disputed Strait of Hormuz waterway following a fresh round of strikes against Iranian military assets overnight.
“We’re going to keep the strait, and we‘ll probably run it. 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,” he told Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” show on Monday morning.
Trump added that “we’re going to be reimbursed, because the other nations are very wealthy. They’re on our side, and we can’t be expected to do that for nothing.”
He added that the United States had “guarded it for nothing” and put “our people in danger.”
Regarding negotiations with Iran, Trump said: “We had a deal. It was a done deal, and then they broke it. They always break it. We’ve had 10 deals with these people, and so we’re just going to hit them very hard.”
U.S. and Iranian military forces exchanged heavy missile and drone attacks over the weekend and into Monday, with Tehran saying it had struck U.S. military facilities across the Gulf and kept the Strait of Hormuz closed, driving oil prices higher. Multiple Gulf and Middle Eastern nations on Sunday said that missiles or drones were launched into their respective territories.
The latest round of strikes marks an escalation in a conflict following the U.S.–Iran signing of a memorandum of understanding to end hostilities, open the strait, and allow for negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program as well as its stockpile of enriched uranium.
Iran has said on multiple occasions through state-run media that Tehran should control the strait, through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s traded oil passes, and that commercial vessels transiting the waterway must follow its pre-approved routes.
Over the weekend, a newly created Iranian agency, the Persian Gulf Strait Authority, said that the waterway is shut. It reiterated that claim in a post on X on Monday, saying that transit through the strait is “currently unfeasible” and blaming the U.S. strikes.
But U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) has disputed Tehran’s assertions. On Sunday, CENTCOM said Iran does not have any control over the Strait of Hormuz and that American forces are now “positioned and prepared to keep” the strait open to international transit.
