Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Wednesday sharply rebuked President Donald Trump over his proposal to rename the Strait of Hormuz after himself, telling the president in a post on X that the American public wants the war in Iran ended, not a shipping lane renamed in his honor.
“No, Mr. Trump. The American people don’t want you to rename the Strait of Hormuz after yourself. They want you to end your illegal war in Iran that has raised diesel prices to $5.69 a gallon & gas prices to $4.12 a gallon. You’re the President, not a mad king. Act like it,” Sanders wrote in the post, published at 6:15 p.m. on September 2, 2026.
Sanders Responds Directly to Trump’s Truth Social Post
Sanders’ post came in direct response to a message Trump published on Truth Social earlier Wednesday morning, in which the president floated changing the name of the waterway that has served as the central flashpoint of the six-month-old war between the United States and Iran.
“Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before! Thank you for your attention to this matter. President DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump wrote.
Sanders Ties the Proposal to Rising Fuel Costs
Rather than address the renaming proposal on its own terms, Sanders used his response to redirect attention to the economic toll of the war itself, citing specific diesel and gasoline prices he attributed directly to the conflict. Independent price tracking backs up the general trend Sanders pointed to: the national average diesel price stood at $5.69 a gallon on September 2, matching the figure in his post, while the national average for regular gasoline hovered near $4.14 a gallon in the final week of August, just above the $4.12 figure he cited
A War Approaching Its Seventh Month
Wednesday’s exchange unfolded against the backdrop of a conflict that has now stretched well past six months. The United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran on February 28, with the Strait of Hormuz — through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas supply normally passes — emerging almost immediately as the war’s central chokepoint. Ship traffic through the strait has remained sharply depressed for much of the conflict compared to prewar levels.
Renewed Strikes Preceded the Renaming Post
Trump’s Truth Social message came one day after the U.S. military resumed strikes on Tehran on Tuesday, ending a weeks-long pause in the fighting. Trump signaled no urgency toward a negotiated end to the war in a separate Truth Social post published Tuesday: “I couldn’t care less if they sign a worthless, to them, agreement. I like our position now much better, with almost total control of the Hormuz Strait, and their economy totally collapsing. They are just playing out the inevitable. When are the Iranian people going to rise up and fight?”
Trump Downplays the Proposal Hours Later
Despite the formality of the Truth Social post, Trump appeared to walk back the idea when reporters pressed him on it at the White House Wednesday afternoon. Asked whether he was serious about the renaming, Trump laughed and said, “No, no … it was just thrown out there.”
White House Pushed the Name Anyway
Even as Trump downplayed the proposal, the official White House account on X posted its own map depicting the waterway rebranded as “Trump Strait,” describing the change as having “a nice ring to it.” The post came as Iran’s Revolutionary Guard reported that two oil tankers had struck naval mines while transiting the strait, forcing their crews to disembark — an incident that underscored the strait’s continued volatility despite administration claims of control over the passage.
Not the First Time Sanders Has Rebuked a Trump Renaming Push
Wednesday’s post fits a pattern for Sanders, who has repeatedly used Trump’s geographic renaming efforts as an opening to criticize the president’s domestic policy record. When Trump signed an executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America” in late August, Sanders responded on social media with a similarly structured rebuke: “No, President Trump. The American people don’t want to rename Lake Ontario Lake America. They want affordable healthcare, childcare, housing, education & nutrition assistance — all of which you have massively cut in order to pay for your $1 trillion tax break to the top 1%.”
Part of a Broader Pattern of Renaming Proposals
The Hormuz proposal marks the latest in a string of renaming efforts pursued by the Trump administration. Early in his second term, Trump signed an order renaming the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America,” a change Mexico and other governments have refused to recognize. Less than a week before Wednesday’s post, he signed a separate executive order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America,” directing Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to update the federal Geographic Names Information System — a change Canada rejected even as Google Maps and Apple Maps updated their platforms to reflect it. Unlike Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico, both of which border U.S. territory, the Strait of Hormuz sits thousands of miles from American shores, bordered instead by Iran and Oman.
Other Democrats Echoed the Same Criticism Over Lake Ontario
Sanders was not alone in framing the Lake America renaming as a distraction from cost-of-living concerns. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer called that order “sad and pathetic” and warned that “voters will respond accordingly in November.” Senator Cory Booker said he would rather see hospitals closed under Trump’s policies renamed “Donald Trump Memorial Hospital” than see a lake renamed for the president, while House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Republicans “don’t give a damn about making your life more affordable.”
Trump Has Floated Formally Claiming the Strait
Wednesday’s suggestion also follows Trump’s earlier remarks about the strait’s legal status. The president said last month that he intended to formally claim Hormuz as U.S. territory, telling reporters, “Pretty soon, I will be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.” He has not detailed how he would execute such a claim over a waterway that has never fallen under U.S. sovereignty.
Administration Disputes Over Transit Volumes Continue
The renaming push also arrived amid ongoing disagreement over how much oil is actually moving through the strait. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC this week that more than 17 million barrels of oil and gas products transited Hormuz by ship on Monday, the highest single-day total since the war began, and argued Iran is losing its ability to “hold the world economic hostage.” Independent shipping trackers have painted a more mixed picture, reporting that transit volumes remain below the roughly 20 million barrels per day that moved through the strait before the war, and that traffic has declined further since strikes resumed this week.
No Resolution to the War in Sight
Six months after Operation Epic Fury began, no diplomatic agreement has been reached to end the conflict or curb Iran’s nuclear program, despite the administration’s repeated claims of near-total control over Hormuz. The naval blockade over the strait remains in place, a posture the White House has cast as central to its economic pressure campaign against Tehran even as fuel prices at home — the very costs Sanders cited in his post — continue to climb.
What Comes Next
Trump has given no indication that he plans to pursue a formal name change for the strait, and his own comments to reporters suggested the Truth Social post was closer to an offhand remark than a policy proposal. Sanders, for his part, gave no sign that he intends to let the episode pass without further comment, continuing a pattern in which he has repeatedly used the president’s renaming proposals as a springboard to spotlight the economic costs of his administration’s policies — from health care and housing to, now, the price Americans are paying at the pump for a war he has called illegal.