President Donald Trump announced Tuesday that the United States will impose a full naval blockade on all shipping to and from Iranian ports, declaring that the Strait of Hormuz is now open to “ALL Ship traffic except for Iran” and crediting the U.S. military for restoring the flow of oil through the critical waterway. The announcement, posted to Truth Social at 10:04 a.m. on July 14, 2026, marks the latest turn in an escalating standoff between Washington and Tehran that has repeatedly threatened to shut down one of the world’s most important energy corridors.
“Oil is flowing like never before, thanks to the awesome Power of the United States Military,” Trump wrote, opening a post that combined a victory lap over the reopened strait with a fresh round of threats aimed at Iran’s leadership.
A Salute to the Chain of Command
Trump used the post to single out three of the officials overseeing the operation. He offered “a special salute” to Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine, and Commander of U.S. Central Command Admiral Brad Cooper, crediting them along with “all members of the Most Powerful Military anywhere in the World, BY FAR” for keeping the strait open. The recognition comes as CENTCOM, under Cooper’s command, has taken the lead in enforcing the blockade on the ground, coordinating naval assets in the Gulf as tensions with Iran have spiked for a third consecutive weekend of exchanged fire.
The Strait Reopens — For Everyone But Iran
At the center of Tuesday’s post was Trump’s declaration that the Strait of Hormuz is now open to all shipping “except for Iran.” He attributed the exception to what he described as Tehran’s “lying, violent, malicious leadership,” which he said is steering the country toward “TOTAL DESTRUCTION.” In place of unrestricted passage for Iranian vessels, Trump announced “a FULL Blockade” targeting any ships traveling to or from Iranian ports, as well as any cargo tied to Iranian trade.
The move formalizes a posture the administration had already put into motion. The U.S. Navy had announced a day earlier that a blockade would take effect on July 14 at 4 p.m. ET, with U.S. Central Command enforcing a naval blockade of all Iranian ports and coastal areas. It is not the first time the administration has taken this step. CENTCOM has noted that an earlier blockade ran from April 13 to June 18, during which forces redirected more than 140 compliant vessels, disabled nine non-compliant ships, and allowed more than 50 commercial vessels carrying humanitarian aid to pass through.
The renewed action followed a sharp deterioration in the ceasefire reached between the U.S. and Iran last month. Iran had fired on a commercial ship passing through the strait over the weekend and declared the waterway closed, a claim Trump rejected in television remarks. U.S. forces then struck multiple sites inside Iran, prompting retaliatory Iranian strikes on Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman, along with reported missile fire toward the United Arab Emirates. That exchange triggered a further round of U.S. strikes before Tuesday’s announcement of the formal blockade.
Scrapping the 20% Fee for Investment Deals
Tuesday’s post also reversed course on a proposal Trump had floated just a day earlier. On Monday, the president had said the U.S. would charge a 20% reimbursement fee on cargo passing through the strait in exchange for providing security, framing the arrangement as compensation for the cost of protecting shipping lanes. By Tuesday, he announced he was scrapping that fee entirely. “Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,” he wrote.
Trump said the investment commitments now being negotiated would be “MASSIVE” while also benefiting the Gulf states themselves. He argued the deals would build on what he called the largest dollar investment into the United States by any country in history, predicting that factories, plants and equipment would pour into the country “at Historic levels” and generate “additional millions of High Paying AMERICAN Jobs.”
Speaking at the White House later Tuesday, Trump elaborated on what prompted the reversal, saying he had heard directly from regional leaders after floating the fee. He said several “kings and emirs” had called him to propose an alternative arrangement built around direct investment in the United States rather than a toll on shipping.
The fee proposal had drawn a pointed response from Tehran even before Trump abandoned it. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi used Trump’s original announcement to argue that Iran itself should be compensated for securing the strait, writing on social media that Iran has “always been the GUARDIAN of the Strait and will remain so FOREVER,” while calling the proposed 20% rate “too much.”
Reviving a Familiar Death Toll Claim
Trump’s post also revived his long-running claims about the scale of Iran’s crackdown on domestic protesters, writing that “the days of Iran killing hundreds of thousands of people, including 52,000 protestors, are OVER.” The figure is the latest in a string of death toll estimates Trump has offered since anti-government protests erupted in Iran late last year, numbers that have climbed steadily over time and diverged sharply from independent monitoring groups. Trump has previously cited figures of 32,000, 35,000, 42,000 and 54,000, while the U.S.-funded Human Rights Activists News Agency has documented roughly 7,000 deaths and Iranian officials have put the toll at just over 3,100. Iranian authorities have repeatedly disputed Trump’s numbers as fabricated.
“IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON”
Trump closed the substantive portion of his post with a familiar red line, declaring in capital letters that “IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON.” The line echoes the stated objective behind the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities earlier this year, which Trump has said “obliterated” Tehran’s nuclear capabilities, even as officials have offered varying assessments of how much damage was actually done to the program.
Global Reaction and Market Impact
The renewed blockade has already rattled energy markets and drawn scrutiny from other major powers. Brent crude futures climbed above $83 a barrel after Trump’s initial announcement of the blockade, while Kpler, a firm that tracks global shipping data, reported that crossings through the Strait of Hormuz had dropped by more than half from the previous week. China’s foreign ministry called for “normal and safe passage” to be restored through the strait, with spokesperson Lin Jian saying Beijing is “deeply concerned” over the resumption of military conflict in the Gulf and urging all parties to “remain calm and exercise restraint.”
What Comes Next
Trump’s post leaves several questions unresolved, including the specific terms of the Gulf investment deals he said would replace the shipping fee, and how CENTCOM will distinguish Iranian cargo from other shipping in practice. For now, the administration’s position is that the strait remains open to global trade while Iran alone bears the weight of the blockade, a framing Trump reinforced in the post’s closing line before signing off, in his characteristic style, as “President DONALD J. TRUMP.”