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Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/04/13/trump-blockade-strait-hormuz-iran-war/
Trump Flips the Script in the Strait of Hormuz
(Washington Post) Marc A. Thiessen - Last week, President Trump's critics said Iran had achieved a strategic victory in its war with the U.S., leveraging control of the Strait of Hormuz to force the president to accept a ceasefire and return to the negotiating table. Now Trump has flipped the script - by using the ceasefire to seize control of the strait. The U.S. blockade accomplishes virtually the same thing as would a military operation to seize Kharg Island (through which almost all of Iran's oil passes) without the risks involved in deploying U.S. ground forces. Moreover, blocking Iran's energy exports to China can give Beijing incentive to pressure Iran to reopen the strait. Before, Iran was allowing its own ships to pass through the strait, but not those of the U.S. and its allies. Now, U.S. and allied ships would be permitted to pass, but Iranian ships would not. Instead of running a highly profitable protection racket - collecting up to $2 million per ship for safe passage - Iran would lose hundreds of millions a day in forgone trade and revenue, and would be powerless to do anything about it. Iran is suffering what Adm. Brad Cooper, the head of U.S. Central Command, calls a "generational military defeat" - losing, in less than 40 days, a military it had built over 40 years. Its only card was its control of the Strait of Hormuz, and now Trump has taken that away, too.