WASHINGTON — President Trump backed off his proposed 20% toll on all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz Tuesday in favor of investment in the US by Persian Gulf states.
Trump said in a Truth Social post the reversal was “[b]ased on highly productive conversations with Middle East Leadership.”
“Those Investments will be MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” he added.
Trump also claimed that exports of oil were “flowing like never before” thanks to recent US airstrikes on Iran, and “the Strait of Hormuz is open to All Ship traffic except for Iran — and that is because of their lying, violent, malicious leadership, which is taking them down the path of TOTAL DESTRUCTION.”
“We will therefore have a FULL Blockade, but only on Ships coming to and from Iranian ports, or carrying anything have to do with Iranian cargo,” he noted.
Trump announced the new tolling scheme on Monday, declaring that the US would be the “guardian” of the Strait of Hormuz and would collect a reimbursement equal to 20% of all cargo value, which one shipping industry expert predicted could amount to $200 billion annually.
“We’ll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the strait, and we should be reimbursed for that,” Trump had suggested during an interview on “Fox & Friends.”
US Central Command began offensive strikes on Iran’s drone and missile capabilities on July 7 after Tehran hit commercial ships seeking to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
That derailed negotiations following a 14-point Memorandum of Understanding that the US and Iran agreed to last month, which allowed for the reopening of the critical oil chokepoint.
A two-month US naval blockade was ended in exchange for “safe passage” of all ships — but Trump accused the Iranians of reneging on their end of the deal once one-way attack drones began hitting commercial vessels last week.
“To me, I think it’s over. I don’t want to deal with them anymore. They’re scum,” the president told reporters last Wednesday at a meeting of NATO heads of state and government in Turkey.
Since then, US forces have been hitting the Islamic Republic in an effort “to further degrade Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping,” CENTCOM said.
The naval blockade will also be reinstated as of 4 p.m. ET Tuesday.
It was unclear whether White House negotiators — including Special Envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner — are still pushing for peace talks with regime officials.
