Trump looks on at the Nassau County Police Academy Center for Training and Intelligence in Garden City, New York.
Trump was joking about declaring Strait of Hormuz US territory, says report
Note: AI technology was used to generate this article’s audio.
US President Donald Trump was “joking” about declaring the Strait of Hormuz US territory, according to Wall Street Journal journalist Brian Schwartz citing an unnamed senior official from the White House.
Trump made the outlandish claim during a speech on Friday in New York, but he chuckled afterwards.
"After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated -- pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States," he said with a chuckle during a political rally at a police academy in New York state.
"It's true," he added.
Trump, together with ‘Israel’, launched a war against Iran on February 28 with the stated aims of ending the country's controversial nuclear program and sparking a popular uprising.
However, Iran struck back by establishing de facto control over much of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway for large amounts of global energy and other commodity shipping.
The United States remains locked in a stalemate with Iran over the strait, with Iran denying access to much of the civilian shipping and the US Navy mounting a blockade of Iranian ports in an attempt to cripple its economy.
"We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to," Trump the cheering crowd of supporters and police.
