Trump Posts Map Declaring Strait of Hormuz US Territory, Iran Calls It Delusional

US President Donald Trump posted an image on Truth Social labelling the Strait of Hormuz a new US territory, the latest and most explicit escalation in a series of similar claims he has made since a police academy speech on Long Island last week.

The strait, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply passes, sits within the territorial waters of Iran and Oman, and Trump did not elaborate on any legal or diplomatic mechanism by which the claim would take effect. Asked about the idea in the Oval Office, Trump said he liked it and argued the United States already effectively controls the waterway through its ongoing naval blockade. We have total control over the strait, he told reporters, adding that oil prices were falling as a result of American action there.

Iran rejected the claim outright. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said on social media that the Strait of Hormuz has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian, and that it will only be closed and opened under Iran’s command. He described Trump’s position as indulging in delusions and said Iran would continue enforcing its own blockade until the United States accepts what he called the reality of defeat.

The post came shortly after a sixty day negotiating period tied to a memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran expired. Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said the strait would remain closed until the United States meets several conditions, including lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, releasing frozen Iranian assets, ending oil sanctions and halting military operations. Trump separately insisted no talks with Iran are currently underway or scheduled, while maintaining that the naval blockade remains in full effect and that all sea mines in the strait have been removed or detonated.

The exchange is the latest chapter in a conflict that began February 28 with joint US and Israeli strikes on Iran. Shipping traffic through the strait has been sharply reduced for months, contributing to volatility in global oil prices, and maritime intelligence firms have described traffic as subdued even as both sides make competing claims about who controls the waterway.