In the long arc of American foreign policy, the line between public declaration and private calculation has always been a negotiating tool as much as a statement of intent. President Trump, according to officials familiar with his thinking, has privately signaled a willingness to accept an end to the U.S.-Iran standoff without a formal nuclear agreement — provided Tehran restores free passage through the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway through which a fifth of the world's oil and gas once flowed. The gap between what is said in public and what is considered in private reflects the deeper