OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
6:00 PM – Friday, August 14, 2026
President Donald Trump announced on Friday that he intends to formally declare the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States.
Speaking at the Nassau County Police Academy in Garden City, New York, during an event in support of Republican gubernatorial candidate Bruce Blakeman, Trump told a cheering crowd of law enforcement personnel that the geopolitical move would follow the military submission of Tehran.
“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,” Trump declared, adding that a U.S. naval blockade currently ensures no ships pass through the vital maritime passageway unless authorized by Washington.
Trump’s declaration builds on statements he posted earlier in the week on Truth Social, where he declared that American naval power had established a “Wall of Steel” over the waterway, boasting that the United States maintained total control over the strait and suggesting that the U.S. intended to keep it.
It remains unclear how such an annexation could be implemented under international maritime law, but the announcement also exemplifies the Trump administration’s hardline stance following the breakdown of indirect diplomatic talks in late July.
The geopolitical fallout was immediate, with Iranian officials rejecting the president’s claims of dominance. Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s deputy foreign minister, responded by stating that Tehran would not be intimidated by U.S. threats or military displays, insisting that the open or closed status of the Strait of Hormuz remains strictly under Iranian authority.
Notably, although Iran’s central military command dismissed claims of total U.S. naval blockades as “fabrications,” ship tracking data from maritime analytics firms reveals that transit volumes through the strait have plunged to roughly 20% of pre-war levels amidst the military confrontation.
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