Defense Trump seeks to lower oil prices with Strait of Hormuz pressure by Ellen Mitchell and Rachel Frazin - 03/10/26 6:04 PM ET by Ellen Mitchell and Rachel Frazin - 03/10/26 6:04 PM ET Share ✕ LinkedIn LinkedIn Email Email NOW PLAYING President Trump is betting on his “fire and fury” rhetoric to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and avoid an oil crisis prompted by his war with Iran. But the strategy, which includes the possibility of Navy warships escorting tankers through the critical waterway or even a U.S. takeover of the area, has not prompted any real results thus far, with just two ships passing through in the past 24 hours and gas prices continuing to spike across the U.S. Naval escorts are unlikely to move the needle much in terms of alleviating the current situation but would put U.S. service members directly in the line of the enemy, according to Jon Hoffman, a research fellow in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute. “The risks of Navy escorts are tremendous because it places the United States directly in harm’s way at a time when the United States is already trying to repel Iranian attacks across the region,” Hoffman told The Hill.  As for a takeover of the strait, any such operation “would immediately insert the U.S. military not only acting right off of Iran shores, but it would insert the U.S. military into an operation that they really aren’t designed to do here,” he said.  “I think it represents more that Trump is really flailing at the current moment. He’s scrambling to try to put together some sort of coherent messaging, some sort of coherent strategy . . . because he’s trying to calm markets.” Located between Oman and Iran, the Strait of Hormuz connects the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea and is one of the world’s most important chokepoints in seaborne shipping. Typically, 60 ships carrying crude petroleum flow through the waterway per day. In 2024, an equivalent of about 20 percent of the world’s oil consumption  flowed through the strait each day on average. Since the U.S. and Israel began their attacks on Iran more than a week ago, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps along with the Iranian navy have closed the strait and warned that any ship attempting to pass through would be attacked. Tehran also has begun laying mines in the waterway, CNN reported Tuesday. The volatility has caused energy prices to spike across the globe, including in the U.S., less than eight months before the midterm elections and with voters already concerned about the cost of living. The choke hold has frustrated Trump, who  posted on Truth Social   on Monday night that the U.S. would hit Iran “twenty times harder” if the country “does anything that stops the flow of Oil within the Strait of Hormuz.” He similarly told reporters Monday, “I will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and attempt to stop the globe’s oil supply. “If Iran does anything to do that, they’ll get hit at a much, much harder level,” he added. “They’ll never be able to recover, ever, if they want to play that game.” The president made similar threats Tuesday amid reports that Iran had placed mines in the strait.  Trump last week first raised the idea of naval escorts to ferry more tankers through “if necessary,” but on Monday, he hoped they wouldn’t be needed.  “When the time comes the U.S. Navy and its partners will escort tankers through the strait if needed. I hope it’s not going to be needed, but if it’s needed, we’ll escort them right through,” he said.  He also batted away concerns about Iranian mines, telling reporters, “We know exactly where they’re placed; we’ll get them out of there very fast,” and offering his usual rhetoric of retaliation. “If they do that, if they play that game, we’re gonna hit them at a level that they have not seen before,” he said. Speaking from the Pentagon on Tuesday morning, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine said that “if tasked to escort” oil ships through the strait, the military would “look at the range of options to set the military conditions to be able to do that.” “What are the resources required, what is the command and control required, and what are the risks, and how do we mitigate those risks?” he said of the Pentagon’s thought process. “So we’re looking at a range of options there and we’ll figure out how to solve problems as they come to us.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who spoke alongside Caine, said Trump “takes very seriously the condition of that strait” and that the U.S. has capabilities to remedy the issue, but that “this isn’t intended to b