Defense & National Security Newsletter

Trump’s blockade bet

by Ellen Mitchell - 04/13/26 6:05 PM ET

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by Ellen Mitchell - 04/13/26 6:05 PM ET

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President Donald Trump speaks with reporters during the White House Easter Egg Roll on the South Lawn of the White House, Monday, April 6, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson)

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Trump’s blockade bet

President Trump’s new blockade in the Strait of Hormuz took effect Monday as talks with Iran faltered over the weekend, with the president betting he can get Tehran to come back to the table with the gambit.

Alton Dunham/US Navy via AP

Starting at 10 a.m., U.S. Navy ships began blocking Iranian ports and stopping some ships looking to enter the key waterway.

As the blockade appeared to take effect, Trump warned that Iran’s small attack boats would be “ELIMINATED” if they came near U.S. Navy ships.

“Iran’s Navy is laying at the bottom of the sea, completely obliterated – 158 ships. What we have not hit are their small number of, what they call, ‘fast attack ships,’ because we did not consider them much of a threat,” the president said in a Monday post on Truth Social. “Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea.”

Iran appeared unwilling to back down from Trump’s threats, with the country’s acting defense minister saying Monday that Tehran is prepared for “any scenario.” Brigadier General Majid Ibn Reza also warned that any aggression against Iran would result in a “harsh and decisive response,” and that his country’s forces are on “maximum combat alert,” according to remarks broadcast on Iran’s state-run television.

Trump’s move seeks to exert economic pressure on Iran — and its allies, like China, that rely on its oil exports — after a nearly six-week U.S.-Israeli bombing campaign that has sent oil and gas prices soaring but has not prompted Tehran to surrender, frustrating the president.

U.S. Central Command, which oversees troops in the Middle East, is taking the lead on the blockade, which it said will be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations” and would allow ships traveling between non-Iranian ports to still enter the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump on Sunday said he had instructed the Navy “to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran.”

Iran halted traffic in the Strait of Hormuz shortly after the U.S. and Israel attacked the country on Feb. 28, causing a global energy crisis, as one-fifth of the world’s crude oil flows through the shipping lane in times of peace.

The U.S. and Iran last week came to a two-week ceasefire, with Tehran agreeing to open the strait, but Israel’s strikes in Lebanon caused the regime to once again close the waterway.

The clock is now ticking on the ceasefire, with talks seemingly stalled after a marathon Saturday of negotiations, mediated by Pakistan and held in its capital Islamabad.

Read the full report at thehill.com.

Welcome to The Hill’s Defense & National Security newsletter, I’m Ellen Mitchell — your guide to the latest developments at the Pentagon, on Capitol Hill and beyond.

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