Trump’s Hormuz Trap Snaps Shut
Iran thought it could extort the world. Instead, Trump is turning a closed Strait into leverage, rising U.S. energy exports, and a global reordering.
Our Deep Dives are normally for Premium Members only, but the importance of this weekend’s events is such that we’re making this one FREE for everyone.
by Rod D. Martin
April 13, 2026
Yesterday, President Trump announced that peace talks with Iran have broken down, and that effective immediately, the U.S. Navy will blockade the Strait of Hormuz: no one in, no one out. He described the policy as “all or nothing.”
Three weeks ago, I argued that the pundit class was asking the wrong question. It kept demanding to know when the United States would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, as though America’s only job were to restore the old arrangement as quickly as possible and ask no larger questions.
That was the wrong question then, and I said so. It’s painfully obvious now, to Iran if not to the TDS-afflicted Enemedia. Donald Trump is not trying to restore the status quo. He is replacing it, and in the process, reshaping the global order.
