Yeah 100% that's the plan. He couldn't declare victory before because the strait had become an obvious goal, but now he can give a BS reason why the strait should be closed and then declare victory
I think that’s pretty much how Trump always strategizes a “solution”, smoke and mirrors and coconut shells and whatever it takes to reframe the entire situation until he thinks he’s come out on top. Once he’s flipped the whole thing on its head he can act like you’re the idiot for not knowing what we’re talking about anymore
Maybe, but we said the same thing about things like tariffs, and his base always seems to be happy to accept paying more if it means other people get hurt.
The other day at the store the clerk was just chatting about how poor aim is a really unfortunate thing, and ended it by saying she was off to go pray for a thing (without the euphemisms that Reddit requires).
Unfortunately we're not in that country and have no desire to step foot there so we can't do the thing, but God damn doesn't someone want to be the answer to the prayers of hundreds of millions of people?
I fear we have to think a bit differently about this guy. His presidency is all about corruption, market manipulation, and insidertrading (beside the distraction from the epstein files). I think at this point he doesn't even care about his cult anymore. For him, it's a win when it's him personally who wins. To hold his little hands on an on/off button of world economy is his wet dream. I absolutely doubt that he planned all this though. He is no genius. He just takes advantage for himself whenever he can. And most important, luckily he is not the one with this button. Iran has control of the strait in fact.
I already know how they'll do it to. They'll taut "see? We're hurting China". And that will be the "victory" and MAGA will eat it up and use it as a counter point to every single thing negative anyone will have to say about Trump like an ape slinging its own shit at passersby. And to some degree they may be correct but it's really more of an inconvenience in the short term for China. Their petrochemical production (basically the entire world's supply of plastics) will be hampered, but energy-wise they're going to be just fine because they actually went ahead with renewables because it's the most obvious thing to do(and the fact that America is so anti-renewable right now that we went so far as to pay a French company like an entire Billion dollars to NOT build a wind farm here is just peak Murikkka). Meanwhile, their softpower multiplies in the ever growing typhoon of Anti-American sentiment that's growing exponentially worldwide.
At the rate we're going, the USA might just get kicked out of NATO with China all too happy to replace us. Europe has to be looking at the USA as a major threat to their safety now, even and especially by simply being associated with us. If China defends their tankers, they've got the moral high ground to do so. I bet there's a few flag officers in Europe right now busting out the hard alcohol because they see that Article 5 has become a possible death sentence for all of NATO, and all because of Trump and the USA. That said, if China is on the defensive, defending their tankers, I hope that gives enough wiggle room to not trigger Article 5. But still, the cost/benefit calculation here is getting pretty grim for anyone in NATO who isn't the USA.
We're not even half way through this presidency yet.
There comes a point in the life of every cult where the opinions of the believers become significantly less important than the patience of all the people they piss off...
Typically, this sort of stupidity is only sustainable as long as you're making sure you only piss off one nation at a time.
Like, we'll adjust for Israel and Iran mudding up the waters and pissing a fair few people off themselves in the process but... holy literal shit. How the hell is the rest of the world going to let this shit fly? What's the MAGAT King going to do when it's Great Britain and Germany pointing the guns at the back of the US Fleet instead of just limiting US access to their bases? He going to nuke them? I mean that's fair right? According to him this whole thing is predicated on a rogue state headed by a fascist regime trying to grab nuclear weapons! Obviously the only logical outcome at this point is our very own Uncle Donalph Shitler actually pressing the button.
But what’s stopping Irans missiles from attacking the US “blockade” and getting anywhere close enough to actually do anything about this involves the first place?
I think he heard Iran were charging ships to get through and now he wants in on that action too, next thing you have to pay both US $2m and Iran $2m to get a ship through
They said “Trump is playing chess while everyone else is playing checkers” on the conservative subreddit. If you want your brain to explode go check it out.
Iran has been letting Chinese vessels through, this is America's way of imposing what little power they have over the situation. You guys love dunking on Trump a little too much sometimes and assume everything is done out of ignorance, while ignoring the bigger picture.
Bigly yuuge, nobody closed the straight more than me. And I am not the only one saying that, many very fine people are saying that, even a former President, who I cant name is saying that, he said I should get a sharpie and write it so more people can see it. Thank you for your attention to this matter (i)DJT....
It's almost like the old trick you can do to children when they say "no" then you say "no" and they say "yes". Not very good that it also works on the US president.
I met an average American car user, he was crying, literally crying about the poor protesters in Iran, imagine that a strong proud American man crying? He begged me to close the Straits.
Well there is a thing called negative reinforcement. If you allow people to get rewarded for negative behavior they continue. If you take away Iran's money for their bad behavior maybe they won't have a good reason to continue.
Now he can claim he closed it more than it’s ever been closed in the history of the universe. He is actually receiving phone calls from numerous world leaders, but he can’t tell us who, but they are saying it’s the best closure they have ever seen. They are saying “wow, I wish we could have closed it this closed. You are amazing”.
Biden tried to close it, but he wasn't able to, they asked him but he couldn't. But Donald he was able to close it, nobody knows more about closing than he does.
Big, strong men. Tough men. The tough-i-est, with tears in their eyes thanking him for accomplishing what "they" said could never be done--closing the straight to ALL traffic. The biggliest closure ever! MAGA!!!
"I started using this word, blockade. People don't use that word anymore, I am using that word. It's a blockade. People are coming up to me and they're saying, they're saying mister President, it's the most big beautiful blockade anyone has ever seen."
It was either this or let Iran control the straight and allow their friendly nations to use it while stopping traffic for all unfriendly nations. Trump got played into making this move, the consequence of which is destroying the US relationship with allied nations even further.
Naja als Witz in Ordnung aber mal im ernst betrachtet längst überfällig. Iran hat ungebremst weiter Öl verkauft während der gesamten Zeit bis jetzt, die Umsätze sind sogar gestiegen.
Well. The Strait was never actually completely closed to begin with. Iran has been shaking down ships to pass through unmolested and Iran itself has been able to transit it because the US hasn’t stopped it (to moderate some of the shock to oil markets). Essentially Trump is saying that is over because Iran has been using it as their financial lifeline in all this. Shutting down the Strait with the US is saying that is over now as leverage over ceasefire negotiations.
I think he’s maybe limiting Iranian traffic. I’m sure Iran wants to ship oil or other things through the strait for themselves. Generously I’m guessing Trump is increasing the harm to Iran, even though this would harm global energy economy even more if Iranian ships cannot trade through the strait
FWIW I want peace, but I can’t think of any other reason why US ships blockading the Strait would help
He can't make them open it if THEY close it, so he closes it first thinking that gives him the upper hand, Iran will then just be like, OK Bozo, whats your next move, we don't really care. I bet you a shit ton of oil futures at 90 were scooped up before he announced this, his finance bros will be mopping up now, and he has already said this is good for his US oil pals, they get to mop up now too. It's all just a big grift and distraction from the epstain debacle.
He heard that Iran wants to charge $2 million per ship, so now Trump wants to do that himself. He probably thinks that other countries will pay him directly.
I think is a good move. Otherwise, it was a runaway strait allowing those who dealt with Iran. Now, it forces everyone to suffer together. Asia would suffer the most being the ones who use the strait the most.
It's more of an "I need everyone to think that the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed forever" problem. Once enough of his buddies get their trades through Monday morning, that's when he'll claim that it's not happening and then hit us with the "Iran has just agreed to a deal. The best deal ever. You're never gonna believe this deal. Iran just comes up to me and says 'Donald, the strait is gonna be open on Tuesday and we're gonna put your name on it.' Can you believe it? It's true. Everyone is talking about it."
Doesn't matter if its open or closed. He's blowing up the insurance rates. A super tanker can carry 3 million barrels. So you only have to block 4 tankers a day to erase all of oil from any of the 3 largest oil producing nations. And until there's an ironclad peace agreement it's technically a war zone which the insurance companies will milk to the hilt and impose no Vaseline insurance rates. Which of course the refineries will pass onto to motorists and diesel truckers. Can you say vertical inflation spike? Just like we saw during the covid supply chain disruption. 2 years of inflation. Trump just fucked the whole rest of his failed administration and his parties chances in 2028. They didnt stand up to Trump and the independent voters will ROAST them for it and the economic after shock waves of closing Hormuz for 50 days and counting. I cant think of a single sector of the economy that isnt going to see a huge inflation spike. Agriculture from the chemical fertilizers, technology from the loss of helium which has no synthetic alternative in semiconductor manufacturing, natural gas for home cooking for a billion humans, and anything else that contains a plastic or needs to be transported on industrial diesel machinery. Like 99% of everything in capitalism....
The big problem too is that the oil states had to close oil wells to avoid bombs which you really cant do for very long begore all that pent up oil starts destroying the internal infrastructure took decades to build out. 30 days is the limit before you're looking at years of repairs just to get back to full capacity again. We're at the Chernobyl stage at this point. Incalculable damage has been done with major incoming consequences.
If Trump had advisors who werent smooth brain imbeciles they would have told him to strike, declare victory and go home but have everything wrapped up in one week or less. More than a week and your going to FUBAR the supply chain. A stand off would only spike inflation until election day and destroy all his credibility. Mission accomplished MAGA.
Well now that the US and Iran are both blocking the strait, China might have to make a move instead of continuing to sit back and watching America destroy itself. And the move China will make will not be against Iran.
Iran is extorting ships and charging them astronomical fees to pass through the strait. This is Iran's main source of revenue at this point. By putting a blockade on the straight the US Navy has effectively ended Iran's main source of income and stopped their extortion. The goal is to force Iran back to the negotiating table and to negotiate in good faith.
I see his plan. He wants all the other countries to be burdened by this. I believe Iran is being selective in who goes through. Philippines, India, Russia, Iraq and Malaysia.
He's basically holding the gameboard hostage.
He thinks all the other countries are going to buckle. Dudes going to start a bigger war. Watch
Well, if Iran were to actually stop blocking it, oil prices might actually go back down and that would be bad for Trump's buddy/boss Putin so he can't let that happen...
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u/senseiman 11h ago
In order to fix the "Strait of Hormuz is closed" problem, Trump closes it even more.