Hasn't stopped them from stealing oil from Venezuela and Cuba

no. it’s invasion and war.

Sure sounds like it's more piracy to me.

Yup

Once again the whole world has to suffer because of Trump's insatiable ego and greed, and his bottomless stupidity. May he be gone soon.

He did previously say that as the "winners" of the war, the US was entitled to collect that toll, basically. So, yeah, I think you're spot on.

This is truly an April Fools-level move.

The US is closing the Strait? The generals couldn't open it, so Hegseth said, 'Okay! I've got it! We declare that WE'RE closing it, NOT THEM!'

How ... is this better?

Oh good. Nazi pirates. How did we end up with a real life plot more stupid than Water World?

No one ⁠who ​pays an illegal toll ​will have safe passage on the high seas

Does that mean they are gonna attack anyone that paid? Also when he starts charging does that mean they will destroy any ships right after they pay?

One of his many word salads involved an offer to split the tolls between us and Iran, so yeah, that’s what he wants. The dummy simply didn’t realize access to the strait was so valuable until after the bombs started dropping.

Illegal toll? Who's laws govern the strait that make these tolls illegal?

Yeah but if they say it this way it sounds like they're in control of the situation

The idea being to choke off Iran's ability to use it at all. This kills their remaining income stream and also incents the Chinese and others who thought they had a workaround (the tolls) to instead put pressure on Iran.

In Hegseth's voice... Why can't you idiots understand how clear our, sorry I mean our great President's, mission has always been. We needed to start this excursion, because Iran was about to extort the world through a blockade. It's extortion when Iran does it. We are liberating the world when we extort, uhm ... uhm... liberate them from Iranian extortion. To pre-empt some of the news you will hear later this week. Iran was already threatening the region with opening Trump branded golf courses on its soil, and so America needed to make sure our friends in the region did so before hand. Radical left wing media not understanding that we won the war because 10 more Trump golf courses are opening in Gulf and 0 in Iran, just don't understand that freedom isn't free.

I'm still trying to work out if this one's a late April Fool...

Imagine working for the man. You just hear crazy shit day in, day out, and have to quickly adapt and run with it, otherwise he'll find another mug who will.

yes, trump is doing 2 things right now, try and pump and dump the markets and continued distraction from epstein files. given how bondi was replaced very quickly BY BLANCHE, and suddenly melania coming out of the woodwork to give a "i did not help diddle kids" speech.

Blockading is considered an act of war

If it broke out in WW3 then I think most of the world's public support would be behind China. The US has always been a hostile bully but Americans generally kept it contained to poorer countries that didn't have as much of a voice. Now though...

That's not Xi's style. I don't think he'd try unless he wants a plausible excuse to kick off a Taiwan assault.

...And, as far as my understanding goes, if Xi wants to do it, now would be an optimal time. Wait any longer, and Taiwan will just get more fortified.

Why do that when they can just sell bonds and watch Bessent have a stroke on TV

Hail Satan!

The plane crashing thing already happened, after the DEI purge

“You can’t quit, you’re fired!”

Lol is that a sea mine XD

especially when melania made a speech how she "wasnt involved in diddling kids,or helped diddle kids"

I mean like, right? 🤔

The US can blockade the entrance to Persian Gulf which is further away from Iran. Oil tankers are lightly armed/defended and slower than Aircraft carrier fighter jets.

you can just throw hundreds at one, and spend less than one of thier US missiles.

Because the US cannot both declare freedom of navigation as the most important part of the straight while also blockading non-US allies which they've explicitly threatened to do. If you approach it from a realpolitik angle like you are right now, then it justifies Iran's actions in closing the straight from that very perspective. The US will not get to have it both ways. Either Iran was justified in closing the straight in response to US aggression or the US is violating international law and general principles of trade.

Why would the US allow Iran to continue to sell oil while Iran is destroying other ships.

To keep oil prices from rising too high, with whole countries running dry. While GOP will portray it as 100% democrats fault, west coast runs out of jet fuel in a week or so.

Something Iran can do to force GCC to demand an end to war within 10 days is to destroy all desalination infrastructure

No one wants Iran to be able to charge for access to the Strait and this would put pressure on the to find a more agreeable end to the conflict.

It is a legal response to an illegal war. Reparations paid to Iran (normally by US) that US adoring colonies can pay instead would satisfy Iran's revenue generation/compensation rationale.