President Trump walked back his plan Tuesday to impose a 20% charge on cargo vessels traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, saying he now prefers Gulf leaders directing billions of dollars in investment into the United States instead.
The president said he changed his position after hearing from “kings and emirs” and other regional leaders who reached out with an alternative to the proposed transit fee.
“They said we’d love to do it a different way. We’d love to invest in the United States with billions and billions of dollars,” President Trump told reporters during an Oval Office appearance Tuesday.
Trump went on to say that the investment approach was more appealing than charging ships to pass through the strait, explaining, “I don’t think anybody should be able to charge a fee for the Strait.”
The position aligns with what U.S. officials have maintained throughout the ongoing conflict — that vessels should have free passage through the Strait of Hormuz. That stance puts Washington at odds with Iran, which has proposed collecting charges from ships using the critical waterway.
Iran has framed its proposed payments as “service fees” rather than tolls, saying the money would go toward maritime security, environmental protection, and vessel management.
It remains uncertain whether the investments mentioned by the Gulf leaders who contacted Trump would be entirely new financial commitments or simply a repackaging of deals that were already announced following the president’s Middle East visit last year.
Trump’s statements on Tuesday came against the backdrop of a third night of military exchanges between the United States and Iran. The renewed hostilities followed a breakdown in talks over a memorandum of understanding aimed at ending a conflict that began in late February.
