Trump vows economic pressure on Iran, jokes about claiming Strait of Hormuz as US territory

President Trump stood before a police academy crowd in upstate New York on Friday and declared, with a chuckle, that he would soon claim the Strait of Hormuz as American territory. Whether he meant it remained unclear. What was clear was that the United States and Iran were locked in a grinding stalemate, nearly six months into a conflict that had choked off one of the world's most vital shipping lanes and was beginning to exact a political price on the administration.

The president's economic threats came a day after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that Washington would impose sanctions on Tehran unlike anything previously attempted, measures set to begin the following week. Trump told Fox News the US would "hit Iran hard economically," but he also asked Americans to absorb a harder truth: slightly higher gasoline prices. In a speech in Garden City, he framed this as a bargain. "What we're doing is a great service for the world," he said, urging citizens to remember that paying more at the pump was the cost of keeping "a very evil country" from obtaining nuclear weapons. The calculation was straightforward in his telling. The political risk was not.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi responded swiftly, posting on X that Tehran would not be intimidated by threats or military posturing. The Strait of Hormuz, he wrote, could not be seized by tweet or aircraft carrier, by order or campaign speech. It would open and close only under Iranian authority. The blockade would continue, he added, as long as the United States refused to accept reality. Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi made clear that no decision had been made to resume negotiations. Mediators from Qatar and Pakistan were exchanging messages with Tehran, but this fell short of genuine talks building on a June ceasefire agreement that had since collapsed.

The physical toll of the standoff was visible in shipping data. On Friday, only three vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz—a grain ship, an empty dry bulk carrier, and an LNG tanker. Nine ships had passed through on Thursday, five on Wednesday. Before the war began in late February, more than 130 ships moved through the waterway daily. The drop represented a 95 percent collapse in traffic. Two more vessels had been attacked on Thursday evening, according to the UAE's national oil company, which blamed Iran. The narrow strait, through which roughly 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas normally flows, had become a chokepoint. Oil prices had climbed toward ninety dollars a barrel. American gasoline prices had risen to around four dollars a gallon.

The extended deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln added another dimension to the political vulnerability. The nuclear-powered carrier had been at sea for nine months, originally dispatched to the South China Sea in November 2025 before being rerouted to the Middle East ahead of the February attacks on Iran. When asked by reporters whether families of crew members were concerned about conditions aboard, Trump said flatly: "No, they're not." He also dismissed the notion that nine months was too long. "No, no, no, not nearly enough," he replied. The president confirmed the ship would soon be replaced by another carrier.

But accounts from sailors' families told a different story. Living conditions had deteriorated, according to reports in military and mainstream media. There had been multiple suicide attempts. One sailor fell overboard on August 3 and was recovered. Acting Navy Secretary Hung Cao acknowledged that "a small number of mental health cases were treated with no loss of life," but blamed the media for "trying to paint our warriors as victims." The Lincoln carried five chaplains, one psychologist, one social worker, a prevention coordinator, and a dog named Captain Fathom to support crew morale. Cao said the extension was necessary because "the mission demanded it."

Democratic lawmakers called for an investigation. The timing was awkward for Trump, who had won his second term partly on a promise to avoid the kind of open-ended Middle East conflicts that had defined previous administrations. The Iran war was already dragging down his poll numbers. Higher gasoline prices colliding with his campaign pledge to lower energy costs created an opening his opponents were preparing to exploit heading into the November midterm elections. The president had said he would never apologize for attacking Iran. The question now was whether Americans would accept the costs he was asking them to bear.