Trump Declares the US “Guardian” of Hormuz and Demands a 20% Toll
President Trump announced that the United States will become “the Guardian of the Hormuz Strait”, reinstating its naval blockade of Iran and charging all commercial shipping a fee “at the rate of 20% on all cargo” to cover the cost of policing the waterway. The declaration blows up the memorandum that ended the war last month, in which lifting the blockade was central. It came as Iran declared passage through the strait “not possible” and struck back at American bases across the Gulf.
A 20% toll on the world’s most important oil chokepoint is an extraordinary claim, and it runs headlong into international law and into Washington’s own stated position: Trump’s secretary of state, Marco Rubio, had said only weeks ago that “no country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway”, and the UN’s maritime body restated its opposition to passage fees on Monday. The move is of a piece with the president’s transactional approach — treating a military commitment as a service to be billed — but it hands Iran a propaganda gift and unsettles the Gulf states whose oil must pass through. Whether the US can actually collect a toll, against the objections of China, Europe and the shippers themselves, is doubtful. Britain’s forces sit inside the Gulf, at the Bahrain naval base and the Qatar air hub. Watch whether any shipowner pays, how allies respond to the fee, and whether the declaration hardens or ends the fighting.