Trump’s Hormuz claim escalates as interim deal deadline passes without breakthrough

Three days after Iran’s deputy foreign minister urged the United States to “accept the reality of defeat” and stop “indulging in delusions” over the Strait of Hormuz, the confrontation has entered a sharper rhetorical phase. President Donald Trump has moved from suggesting the waterway could become U.S. territory to posting a map that labels it “NEW U.S. Territory,” while the 60-day negotiating window under a fragile June memorandum of understanding expired without a successor agreement.

Trump is now posting maps declaring the Strait of Hormuz “NEW U.S. Territory.” pic.twitter.com/C7iSusfKuQ
— Orla Joelsen (@OJoelsen) August 18, 2026

The EUalive report of 15 August captured a moment of mutual defiance. Iranian officials insisted the strait “will only be opened and closed under Iran’s command,” rejected any notion that it could be seized by tweet, carrier or decree, and maintained an effective closure that had reduced daily traffic from more than 130 vessels to a handful. Trump, for his part, told a New York audience that Americans should accept “a tiny little bit more” at the pump as the price of preventing a nuclear-armed Iran. Gasoline prices were then averaging about $4.08 a gallon, up roughly 29 percent year-on-year, and both sides showed little appetite for resuming direct talks.

Iran calls on U.S. to accept defeat as Trump tells Americans to accept high fuel prices

By 17 August the picture had hardened. The memorandum’s 60-day period for negotiating a final settlement expired. Trump told reporters and a Fox News interviewer that Iran would not accept the terms he considered necessary, that Tehran “should put up the white flag of surrender,” and that the United States was “in there for one reason: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.” He also threatened military action against Oman, a U.S. ally engaged in separate talks with Tehran on restoring commercial shipping through the strait: “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the shit out of them.” Washington made clear it was not seeking an extension of the interim framework.

Trump had already floated the territorial idea days earlier. At a Long Island rally on 14 August he said that after “defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated,” he would “pretty soon” declare the Hormuz Strait a U.S. territory, adding that the existing naval blockade already amounted to control: “No ships get through unless we want them to.” Iranian officials dismissed the remarks as delusions; the strait, they repeated, had been, was, and would remain Iranian.

On 18 August the rhetoric became visual. Trump posted an image on Truth Social showing a map of the strait circled beneath a banner reading “NEW U.S. Territory.” The graphic carried no caption. In comments the same day he reiterated that the United States already exercised “total control” through the blockade, that the idea of formal territorial status appealed to him, and that oil prices were falling as a result of restricted Iranian shipments. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf responded that the waterway would stay closed until Washington fulfilled commitments Iran says were contained in the June memorandum – lifting the naval blockade, ending oil sanctions and unfreezing Iranian assets.

Maritime reality remains constrained. Tracking data continues to show only a fraction of pre-war traffic. Occasional vessel incidents – projectile strikes, reported boardings – persist. Both sides claim effective control: the United States through its blockade and redirection of commercial shipping, Iran through its assertion of command and residual ability to disrupt traffic. Oil markets have reflected the prolonged uncertainty, though Trump has pointed to recent price movements as evidence that pressure is working.

The sequence since mid-August illustrates a familiar pattern in the six-month conflict: maximalist statements, collapsed negotiating windows, and competing claims over a chokepoint that once carried roughly one-fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas. With midterm elections approaching and domestic fuel prices still elevated, the political stakes for Washington remain high. For Tehran the priority is extracting concrete concessions before any reopening. Neither side has yet offered a clear off-ramp that the other is prepared to accept.

With Reuters, edited by g.g.

Caption: People drive past an anti-US and Trump billboard in a street in Tehran, Iran, 27 July 2026. The US and Iran paused strikes and retaliatory attacks to pursue diplomatic efforts to end the conflict over the Strait of Hormuz. EPA/ABEDIN TAHERKENAREH