Trump Says War In Iran Will Not End Until Strait Of Hormuz Is Reopened

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the war with Iran would not end until the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, as global leaders brace for an extended disruption to the energy market.

“Until then, we are blasting Iran into oblivion or, as they say, back to the Stone Ages!!!” he wrote on Truth Social on Wednesday.

The president’s post — a seemingly new condition for ending the war — comes as he plans to deliver a prime time speech to “provide an important update on Iran” on Wednesday evening. And it comes as Trump continues to stew over the inaction of U.S. allies on the Strait, a critical waterway and transit lane for roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply.

Iran has effectively cut off the passage since the start of the war in late February.

Trump has been so rankled by NATO’s refusal to help defend the Strait that he’s weighing pulling the U.S. out of the defensive alliance, he told the Telegraph in an interview Wednesday.

“I was never swayed by NATO,” he said. “I always knew they were a paper tiger, and [Vladimir] Putin knows that too, by the way.”

In recent days, the president has suggested the countries that rely on the Hormuz crossing the most ought to “just TAKE” the Strait. He’s also signaled to aides that he’d be willing to end the war without fully reopening the waterway, according to The Wall Street Journal.

But prior to Wednesday’s post, reopening the strait has not been a stated goal of the administration in ending the war, underscoring the mixed messaging from his administration on the aims of the conflict. Top Trump officials have stated that the U.S. goals in the war include destroying Iran’s ballistic missile stockpile and production facilities, obliterating its navy and preventing it from developing a nuclear weapon.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chair Gen. Dan Caine reiterated those goals Tuesday, saying in a morning press briefing that the U.S. military was focusing on destroying Iranian missile and drone production facilities.

Just Tuesday evening, Trump told reporters that the U.S. would be “leaving” the war “within two weeks, maybe two weeks, maybe three.” He added that Tehran “doesn’t have to make a deal” in order for the conflict to end, a statement his Wednesday post appeared to contradict.

Trump also wrote Wednesday that Iran’s “New Regime President, much less Radicalized and far more intelligent than his predecessors” was asking for a ceasefire. It wasn’t immediately clear which regime figure Trump was referring to.

Masoud Pezeshkian, Iran’s president, was elected in July 2024. He has remained in that post throughout the joint U.S.-Israeli operation, at times drawing the White House’s ire.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Trump has repeatedly said that he would like to find a figure within the current regime to work with in the future — much like the playbook he has used with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez after the U.S. ouster of Nicolás Maduro in January.

While some names, including Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf, have been floated as potential options, Trump has yet to officially name Ghalibaf as his negotiating partner.

Still, Ghalibaf has emerged as a top contender, with Trump telling The New York Post on Monday that he would know “in about a week” whether the parliamentary speaker was someone who could work with Washington.

Trump has also maintained that Washington and Tehran have been in talks to end the war, a claim that Iranian officials have repeatedly denied.

The U.S. offered a 15-point peace proposal to Iran via Pakistani mediators, but Tehran rejected the deal. And White House officials have repeatedly chided the media for taking Iran at its word on any negotiations.

With spiking gas prices threatening to sink his affordability agenda ahead of the November midterms, the Strait of Hormuz has also increasingly become a fixation for the president. The average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. crossed the $4 mark Tuesday, hitting its highest level since 2022.

Trump has blasted NATO allies for refusing to help secure the Strait and claimed the Pentagon no longer needs their help.

“You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us,” he wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday. “Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!”