President Donald Trump has broken Iran’s grip on the Strait of Hormuz after the U.S. Navy cleared mines from the strategic waterway and opened additional shipping routes in what American officials are calling a “watershed moment.” The move has sharply diminished Tehran’s leverage over global energy markets while Washington simultaneously chokes off the regime’s own oil revenue.
Trump announced Tuesday the Navy had removed or detonated all mines from international waters in the Strait of Hormuz, capping a months-long American operation to neutralize one of Iran’s most powerful remaining tools of economic pressure. “I have just been informed by the United States Navy that all mines have been removed and/or detonated from within the International Waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The president coupled the announcement with a warning that Iran had been notified that any vessel attempting to lay new mines would be “immediately and systematically destroyed,” declaring a “Zero Tolerance” policy on mine placement. He added that the United States was using Space Force capabilities to watch “every square inch” of the strait, while also monitoring Iran’s Pickaxe Mountain facility and its three previously destroyed nuclear sites.
