U.S. President Donald Trump asked the American public on Friday to tolerate modest increases in pump prices, framing the financial burden as a necessary sacrifice to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons capability.
Addressing an audience in Garden City, Trump acknowledged the economic strain while offering a bold foreign policy ambition for the strategically vital waterway through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas shipments routinely transit.
The President insisted that citizens should view the added costs at the pump through the lens of international security, identifying Iran as “a very evil country” that must be denied access to nuclear armaments.
“After we finish defeating Iran … pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”
The President’s rhetoric adds a complex political dynamic to his administration’s economic platform. Rising fuel expenses directly test his core campaign pledge to curb domestic energy costs, providing opposition Democrats with key leverage ahead of the upcoming November midterm elections.
It remains unconfirmed whether Trump’s remarks regarding the acquisition of the Strait of Hormuz mark an official shift in administrative foreign policy or represent intentional political posturing.