At a rally in New York state on August 14, 2026, Trump said: “After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”
He claimed the United States already controls the waterway, saying no ships get through unless U.S. forces let them pass. Iranian military officials disputed that, saying Iran continues to manage traffic through the strait.
On August 18, after a 60-day deadline for a deal passed, Trump posted an image on Truth Social circling the strait and labeling it a “new U.S. territory,” without further explanation.
The Strait of Hormuz is an international waterway between Iran, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. Before the war it carried roughly one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies. It is not a territory of any single state, and no mechanism exists by which a U.S. president could unilaterally annex an international strait. Territorial waters belong to the coastal states, and transit passage through international straits is governed by the law of the sea.
This is filed as absurd because the declaration described cannot happen, not because the underlying situation is trivial. The blockade the claim refers to is real, and so are its effects on global energy supply.