Trump Claims Strait of Hormuz Will Become US Territory

The Strait of Hormuz, a narrow passage that carried roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil shipments before the war and whose status now moves the price of crude oil on the market that also supplies importers in Serbia, was mentioned from Washington for the first time last night as a potential US territory. President Donald Trump made the announcement on Friday, August 14, at the Nassau County Police Academy Training and Intelligence Center in Garden City, New York, before an audience of police officials.

“Once we finish defeating Iran, which has been beaten very badly, I will soon declare the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States.”

According to accounts from the event, he said it with a laugh. Until now, the US administration had spoken about controlling the waterway, about a blockade and about charging tolls for passage, but not about annexing the strait itself.

What Was Announced, and What Is Already Happening

The announcement has no formal shape: no decree, deadline or legal basis has been published. It does, however, follow a string of moves pointing in the same direction. Last month Trump proposed that the United States become the guardian of the waterway and charge a 20 percent fee on goods passing through it. Legal experts have answered that proposal with the same argument each time: international law protects the free passage of commercial vessels, so any such toll would be unlawful.

Iran has restricted traffic through the strait since February 28, the start of the war, arguing that part of the passage runs through its territorial waters. Washington, meanwhile, has set up a blockade of its own and this week opened fire on a cargo ship it claimed was trying to reach Iranian ports. At the Garden City rally, Trump described that blockade as a service to the rest of the world and, in his words, a wall of steel.

A few hours earlier, at 1:53 p.m. at Joint Base Andrews, the same president dismissed complaints from sailors’ families and said a nine-month aircraft carrier deployment is nowhere near too long. He was referring to the carrier Abraham Lincoln, which has flown more than 10,000 aircraft launches on its current deployment and is still awaiting relief from the carrier George Washington. Acting Secretary of the Navy Hung Kao defended the crew in a statement:

“There is no doubt our young men and women have been pushed to their limits, but they have never been broken.”

Tehran’s Response Arrives Before Dawn

Tehran responded in the early morning hours on Saturday, through Deputy Foreign Minister for Legal and International Affairs Kazem Garibabadi, who posted on X.

“The Strait of Hormuz cannot be seized by a tweet, an aircraft carrier, an executive order or a campaign speech.”

In the same string of posts, Garibabadi went a step further and spelled out what amounts to Iran’s negotiating position on the very issue on which ceasefire talks hinge:

“The Strait of Hormuz was Iranian, is Iranian and will remain Iranian; this strait will close and open only on Iran’s command.”

The choice of spokesman was no accident. Garibabadi covers the legal portfolio, and Tehran is deliberately steering the dispute back onto the ground of international law, where the American announcement has no footing.

Attacks on Ships Continue

While the statements fly back and forth, traffic through the strait keeps taking hits. A ship belonging to ADNOC was attacked on Friday evening while passing through the strait, with no injuries reported. It was the third attack on a vessel of the Emirati company in a week, and the 15th of its ships hit since February. We reported on the previous attack in that series when Abu Dhabi blamed Tehran for a strike in the Strait of Hormuz.

The war was also felt further north that same day: three drones were shot down over Erbil on Friday morning, between 2:17 and 2:25 a.m. local time. Iraq, by contrast, has exported two million barrels of oil a day since August 1, the highest since the war began, showing that part of the region’s exports have adapted to new routes and that the pressure on the strait has not hit every supplier equally.

Why It Matters for Serbia and the Region

Serbia has no stake in this dispute in terms of ships or ports, but it does have a stake in the price. Any announcement that calls into question who controls a passage that carried a fifth of the world’s oil feeds through to the price of crude, and from there to the price of fuel on the domestic market. There is a second, less visible but more lasting layer: if the logic takes hold that a shipping lane can be declared someone else’s territory or subjected to a toll, it undermines a rule that protects small and landlocked states more than large ones, namely free passage.

The Garden City announcement came in the middle of the campaign for November’s midterm elections, at a rally meant to rally support for Republican candidates, at a moment when a late July Quinnipiac University poll shows 60 percent of American voters oppose military action against Iran. Trump has talked about expanding US territory before: in his 2025 inaugural address he described the country as a growing nation, and he has since turned up the pressure on Canada and Greenland.

The next concrete date is not diplomatic but military: the carrier handover and the arrival of the George Washington in the region. Until then, the strait remains what it has been since February, a bargaining chip for both sides and the most expensive point on the map of world trade.