President Donald Trump has declared the United States the official guardian of the Strait of Hormuz, announcing a sweeping new plan to charge a 20% fee on all cargo shipped through the critical waterway as fresh strikes between U.S. and Iranian forces rattled an already fragile ceasefire.
The announcement, made Monday on Truth Social, marks a sharp escalation in the standoff with Tehran over one of the most strategically important shipping lanes on the planet. The strait has historically carried roughly 20% of the world’s oil trade, making it a pressure point with enormous consequences for the global economy.
“The Hormuz Strait is OPEN, and will remain OPEN, with or without Iran,” Trump wrote, going on to announce the reinstatement of a blockade targeting Iranian ships and customers while pledging free passage to all other nations.
As originally reported, Trump made clear he expects compensation for keeping the waterway secure, writing that the U.S. “will be reimbursed, at the rate of 20% on all cargo shipped, for any and all costs necessary to do the job of providing safety and security to this very volatile section of the World.”
He later doubled down in a Fox News interview, saying the U.S. would not allow Iran to choke off the strait and would actively run operations there going forward.
“We’re going to keep the strait, and we’ll probably run it,” Trump said. “We can’t be expected to do that for nothing, unlike we had for many years. We guarded it for nothing, and now we’re going to guard it, we’re going to get paid for guarding it. A lot of money.”
The announcement came alongside a new round of U.S. strikes against Iran on Monday, further shaking confidence that any diplomatic pause could hold. Trump declared last week that a temporary ceasefire, signed in mid-June, was “over.” That agreement had specifically barred Tehran from levying tolls or fees on commercial vessels transiting the strait.
Iran had been pushing to assert control over the waterway and had signaled its own interest in charging ships for passage. Washington rejected that power grab outright.
Markets responded immediately. Oil prices climbed Monday morning, and stocks fell as investors weighed the risk of a prolonged disruption to Persian Gulf shipping. Any sustained blockage or conflict in the strait can send shockwaves through the global economy almost instantly.
Trump framed the new U.S. role not as an occupation but as a service with a price tag attached. “Maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the strait,” he told Fox News. “And we should be reimbursed for that.”
With fresh strikes underway and the ceasefire effectively collapsed, the coming days will determine whether Washington’s bold claim over the Hormuz Strait holds, or whether it becomes the next flashpoint in an already volatile confrontation.