US President Donald Trump announced on July 13 that the US would immediately begin imposing 20% tariffs on all goods shipped through the Strait of Hormuz, declaring the US military as the official custodian of the troubled maritime checkpoint.
The announcement, delivered via Trump’s Truth Social platform, comes on the heels of a new two-day escalation of military strikes between US and Iranian forces that threatened to permanently dismantle ongoing regional peace talks.
“The United States will, from this point forward, be known as the ‘Guardian of the Strait of Hormuz,’ but as such, in the interests of fairness, will be reimbursed 20% on all goods shipped, for any and all costs necessary to undertake the mission of providing safety and security to this very troubled part of the world. The process and formation will begin immediately,” Trump wrote.
Hours before his social media post, Trump indicated this move during a… Fox News Interview, stating that the United States “controls” the waterway. He told the network: “We will preserve the strait, and we will probably manage it. We will become the guardians of the strait. We will probably call him the guardian angel of the strait. We must compensate for that.”
Re-siege
The newly announced tally coincides with Washington’s reimposition of what Trump has described as the “Iranian blockade” — a military operation aimed at isolating shipping access to Tehran while keeping the corridor open to global trade.
Trump stressed, “The Strait of Hormuz is open and will remain open, with or without Iran. We are reimposing the Iranian blockade, so called because it only prevents Iranian ships or agents from entering or exiting. All other countries will have fair and open use of the Strait.”
Tehran rejected this step. Following Trump’s comments, a spokesman for Iran’s Khatam al-Anbia military command issued a video message in which he declared that Iran “will under no circumstances allow the United States to interfere in the management” of the waterway. The leadership also warned neighboring Gulf states that any cooperation with US forces regarding the Strait would be treated as an “act of war.”
Escalation at choke point
The geopolitical standoff intensified on the ground when Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) posted on X that it considered the strait closed, citing “hostile actions by US forces” that made passage “currently not possible.”
The current conflict has its roots in a conflict that began on February 28, when US and Israeli raids killed then-Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, prompting Iran to close the sea lane. The latest flashpoint occurred on July 11 when Iranian forces struck a container ship, setting off a consecutive day of retaliatory military exchanges.
While a temporary peace deal reached last month technically allowed Iran to manage traffic and perhaps impose its own fees, Trump indicated last week that those negotiations were “over.” International mediators from Pakistan, Qatar and Egypt continue to salvage a final agreement, although the two countries are still halfway through the scheduled 60-day negotiating period.
The Strait of Hormuz remains the world’s main energy bottleneck, historically carrying nearly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies. While the US military is actively exploring alternative global routes to bypass the corridor entirely, maritime nations face immediate disruption to the economics of commercial shipping under the proposed 20% security tariff.
