President Trump doubled down on declaring the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory on Monday, asserting "total control" of the waterway through a naval blockade, just as the 60-day U.S.-Iran negotiating window expired with no deal.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said the blockade gives Washington an iron grip on one of the world's most important shipping lanes and dismissed Iran's ability to challenge it. He floated making the territorial claim permanent, called Iran's military "totally defeated," and warned Oman it would face severe consequences if it interfered with U.S. operations.
The remarks came on the same day the negotiating period under a June memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran formally lapsed. That agreement was supposed to create a diplomatic off-ramp. Instead, the 60 days produced Iranian attacks on commercial vessels, U.S. retaliatory strikes, and an arrangement that, Breitbart News reported, has "largely unraveled."
Iran responded with a barrage of threats. A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Washington has only "a few weeks" to implement Tehran's interpretation of the June agreement, or face a "timely and precise" military attack aimed at breaking the blockade. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps issued a statement vowing to "decisively crush any threat or aggression" under what it called a strategy of "maximum deterrence and powerful offensive operations."
Trump showed no interest in backing down.
In a phone interview with Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst on Monday, Trump called on Tehran to capitulate outright.
"They should put up the white flag of surrender."
He described Iran's negotiators as "good poker players" who are "dying" and said he felt no urgency to reach a deal. "I have no time schedule. I'm not in a hurry," he told Yingst. He added that the weapons the U.S. has deployed so far amount to "peanuts", "a lot of mid-level weapons", leaving open the possibility of a sharper escalation.
In the Oval Office, Trump laid out his case in blunter terms. "We control it. We control it with the blockade," he said. "And I like the idea of declaring it a territory. We could do that. We have total control over the strait."
He claimed the U.S. is "taking out millions of barrels of oil a week" through the strait and said Iran is buckling under economic pressure. "Iran is in big trouble. They have 300% inflation. The country's a mess, and their military is totally defeated," Trump told reporters.
On Truth Social, he framed the standoff around a single objective: "number one Goal is, and always will be, that Iran cannot have, in any way, shape, or form, a Nuclear Weapon." In the Oval Office, he echoed the point directly: "Look, we're in there for one reason. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon."
The president's earlier declaration of the U.S. as "Guardian" of the strait set the stage for Monday's escalation. Trump first floated the territorial claim last week. On Monday, he made clear he sees no reason to walk it back.
U.S. Central Command backed up Trump's claims with operational numbers. CENTCOM described its enforcement operation as a "steel wall blockade" and reported that American forces have redirected 64 commercial vessels, disabled three non-compliant ships, and boarded two others. The Washington Examiner reported the same enforcement figures, noting the U.S. Navy has imposed a counter-blockade of Iranian ports that demonstrates significant military dominance over the waterway.
The International Energy Agency warned that reopening the strait is becoming increasingly urgent as global oil stockpiles deplete rapidly. Oil flow through the strait had dropped sharply during the conflict, from roughly 20 million barrels per day to approximately 9 million, the New York Post reported.
Trump stated Washington is not seeking to extend the expired MOU. He said Iran "want[s] to make a deal, but they're not going to make the kind of a deal that I feel is necessary."
The standoff follows months of escalation that have included Trump declaring a previous ceasefire "over" after Iranian-linked tanker attacks in the strait. American service members have paid a price in the conflict as well, Trump recently attended the dignified transfer for three service members killed in Iranian strikes.
Tehran's response to Trump's territorial claim mixed defiance with visible economic pain. IRGC political deputy Brig. Gen. Yadollah Javani said Iran's armed forces would adopt a "transformative" approach under the country's recently reshuffled military leadership and warned: "Perhaps they should expect strategic surprises."
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that Iran has used the period since the June MOU to prepare for a larger and longer conflict. Citing intercepted communications and intelligence from Arab governments, the Journal said Tehran has consolidated military command, accelerated missile and drone production, expanded counterintelligence and surveillance, and deepened coordination with proxy forces in Yemen, Iraq, and Lebanon.
The General Staff of Iran's Armed Forces vowed over the weekend to continue fighting until the "complete defeat" of the United States and Israel and until its enemies are forced to "surrender." Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, described as one of Tehran's principal negotiators with Washington, went further, claiming outright victory.
"I say with complete conviction that we won this war, both militarily and politically."
That claim sits uneasily beside the admission from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, who acknowledged last week that the blockade has choked off a vital revenue stream. "We could sell oil, and now we can't," Pezeshkian said.
One of Monday's more revealing exchanges involved the existence of a direct communication line between Washington and the IRGC. Trump confirmed during his Fox News interview that U.S. officials maintain a backchannel with the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Hours later, IRGC spokesman Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebbi publicly denied it. "There are no talks taking place between IRGC officials and the Americans," Mohebbi said. He accused Trump of making a "lie" born of what he characterized as American "defeat and desperation."
Mohebbi added a pointed declaration of the IRGC's self-image: "The IRGC is the arm and voice of the power of the Iranian nation and the Islamic Republic, and it speaks its word on the battlefield."
The flat contradiction, Trump saying the channel exists, the IRGC denying it, left the question unresolved. But the speed of the denial suggests Tehran views any public acknowledgment of talks with Washington as politically dangerous at home, even as its economy craters under the blockade's pressure.
Retired Gen. Jack Keane, in comments to Fox News, warned that Iran is likely to escalate, believing Trump will avoid major military action before the midterms. But Keane cautioned that Tehran has repeatedly miscalculated Trump's resolve. "He is totally capable of shutting them down once and for all," Keane said. "We have more capability in the region now than we had on Feb. 28, and it all is ready."
Trump's sharpest language Monday was reserved not for Iran but for Oman, the small Gulf state that has been conducting parallel negotiations with Tehran over future shipping arrangements through the strait.
In the Fox News interview, Trump warned bluntly: "If Oman gets in the way, we'll bomb the s*** out of them." In the Oval Office, he softened the phrasing slightly but not the message: "I don't think they behaved very well, but we'd handle them very easily, just like we do other things."
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran and Muscat had reached an understanding on the map of a maritime transit route through the strait, though he acknowledged a broader agreement and joint statement had not been finalized. Baghaei said talks were continuing "in earnest" toward a mechanism that would protect what Tehran calls the sovereign rights of Iran and Oman while allowing commercial traffic.
Baghaei also declared the MOU's 60-day window "entirely moot," claiming U.S. violations prevented nuclear and sanctions talks from ever beginning. Washington has rejected Iran's interpretation of the agreement and demanded unrestricted, toll-free commercial passage through the strait.
Trump has consistently treated the strait as a lever, not just against Iran, but as a broader assertion of American power. His standing orders regarding Iran in the event of an assassination attempt reflect the same posture: a president who views maximum pressure as the only credible negotiating position.
Yet even as Trump asserts total control, shipping traffic through the strait remains well below normal levels, and the global oil market continues to feel the squeeze. Just The News noted that diplomatic negotiations with Iran have largely broken down, leaving the blockade as the primary instrument of U.S. policy.
The expiration of the June MOU's negotiating window leaves both sides without a diplomatic framework. Trump has said no further talks are planned. Iran has said Washington must meet its demands before any new discussions can begin. The IRGC is promising offensive operations. The U.S. Navy is enforcing a blockade that has physically reshaped commercial traffic in one of the world's most critical chokepoints.
Iran's leaders insist they are winning. Their own president says they cannot sell oil. Their parliament speaker claims total victory. Their military promises "strategic surprises." And their economy, by Trump's account, is running at 300 percent inflation.
When a regime has to declare victory and beg for relief in the same week, the blockade is working. The question now is whether Tehran figures that out before it runs out of time, or options.