President Donald Trump on Wednesday floated renaming the Strait of Hormuz after himself. The proposal came as U.S. forces claim near-total control of the vital oil chokepoint amid renewed fighting with Iran.
Donald Trump floats the idea of renaming Strait of Hormuz
Trump wrote on Truth Social, “Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???” He followed up with a second post claiming the waterway would be “hotter than ever before.” The president provided no details on how he would rename an international waterway located thousands of miles from American shores.
His earlier Lake Ontario order directed the Interior Secretary to update federal naming databases. Canada rejected that change, though Google and Apple adopted it on their maps. Now, this latest proposal follows Trump’s previous effort to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America. Mexico and other nations refused to recognize that change. Both Lake Ontario and the Gulf of Mexico border U.S. territory, unlike the Strait of Hormuz.
However, Trump walked back the proposal hours later. When reporters at the White House asked if he truly intended to rename the strait, he responded, “No, no … it was just thrown out there.”
Trump has repeatedly claimed Iran lost control of the strait during the war that began in late February. Before the conflict, roughly one-fifth of global oil trade passed through the narrow waterway. Current transit levels remain far below prewar figures, and ship trackers report further declines as military strikes resumed after a brief pause.
The administration argues that regional oil exports have exceeded prewar totals when counting Saudi Arabia’s and the United Arab Emirates’ pipelines that bypass Hormuz. The president also stated the U.S. stands ready to strike Iran “at any time” but predicted renewed fighting would not last “too long.”
