Administration

Trump signals tankers headed to US to load up ‘sweetest’ oil: ‘We are waiting for you’

Comments:

by Sophie Brams - 04/11/26 10:11 AM ET

Comments:

Link copied

by Sophie Brams - 04/11/26 10:11 AM ET

Comments:

Link copied

NOW PLAYING

President Trump said Saturday morning that “massive numbers” of empty tankers are headed to the U.S. to stock up on oil and gas, as Iran continues to restrict movement in the Strait of Hormuz.

“Massive numbers of completely empty oil tankers, some of the largest anywhere in the World, are heading, right now, to the United States to load up with the best and ‘sweetest’ oil (and gas!) anywhere in the World,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

“We have more oil than the next two largest oil economies combined — and higher quality,” he continued. “We are waiting for you. Quick turnaround!”

The post came as U.S. and Iranian delegations were meeting with Pakistani mediators in Islamabad for indirect negotiations aimed at hashing out a longer-term agreement to end the six-week conflict in the Middle East.

The talks come just days after Trump announced a two-week ceasefire, in which the U.S. agreed to pause strikes on the condition that Tehran reopened the Strait of Hormuz — a vital oil shipping channel that carries roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply — which has been largely closed since the war began on Feb. 28.

Only a few tankers managed to get through the strait before it was restricted again Wednesday in response to Israeli attacks on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.

Trump has also slammed the Iranian regime’s plan to charge the cryptocurrency equivalent of $1 for each barrel of oil on board to ships transiting the strait, saying on Thursday: “They better not be.”

In an early Saturday morning phone call with NewsNation, the president denied that the tankers were coming to the U.S. because of the strait’s closure.

“No, it’s not,” he told NewsNation’s Kellie Meyer, saying the shipping channel would be open “in the not-too-distant future.”

“Iran’s a failing nation. A very failing nation, and it’s gonna be opened up. But I think people are seeing that there are other alternatives to going through the Strait,” the president added.

Trump said in a separate Truth Social post that the U.S. was “starting the process of clearing out” the strait as a “favor” to the world, referring to Iranian sea mines. He named China, Japan, South Korea, France and Germany.

“Incredibly, they don’t have the Courage or Will to do this work themselves,” he wrote.

The strait has also been at the heart of Trump’s frustration with European allies, who have been reluctant to deploy military assets to help secure safe passage for tankers.

Add as preferred source on Google