Trump: Hormuz Is US Territory — And We're Not Sure We Even Want a Deal With Iran

Trump held a campaign rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on August 21 to support Darlin Graham — the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham — ahead of a Republican primary runoff on August 25. The political event produced two foreign policy statements with direct market implications.

"We Don't Even Know If We Want a Deal"

Trump said Iran "desperately wants a deal." Then he added: "But we don't even know if we want one — because I now see the Strait of Hormuz as US territory."

The sequencing matters. In every prior Trump statement on Iran, the framing was that the US was pressing Iran toward terms. This statement reverses the logic: even if Iran capitulated to US demands, the US might not take the deal — because control of Hormuz is the outcome Trump is now describing as preferable to a negotiated resolution.

This is the first time Trump has publicly declined to confirm US interest in any Iran deal, even a favorable one. The prior framing — "Iran will have to come to us" — assumed a deal as the endpoint, with the terms being contested. The new framing — "we don't even know if we want one" — removes the endpoint entirely. For oil markets, this eliminates any premium for near-term Hormuz normalization. If Trump is not interested in a deal on any terms, transit volumes do not recover on a diplomatic timeline. The Hormuz blockade becomes open-ended, not transitional.

Hormuz as "US Territory": The Second Claim

Trump has now made the Hormuz-as-US-territory claim twice publicly:

• August 14: "I will soon be declaring the Strait of Hormuz as US territory"
• August 21: "I now see the Strait of Hormuz as US territory"

The language shifted from future intent ("will be declaring") to present tense ("I now see"). No formal legal declaration has been made. Under international law, the Strait is governed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which guarantees transit passage rights and which the US has never ratified — though it accepts as customary international law.

The practical effect of the claim is not legal but strategic: it asserts permanent US control and removes any timeline on which Hormuz would return to its prior status as an internationally shared waterway. A "US territory" framing is incompatible with Iran resuming independent control or transit rights being renegotiated as part of a peace deal. It is a maximalist positioning that locks in the military posture as the baseline, not the crisis.

Midterm Stakes: Impeachment, Tax Cuts, Border

The SC rally served Trump's domestic political agenda. His message on midterm consequences was explicit: if Republicans lose, he will face impeachment proceedings, tax cuts will be reversed, border security will collapse, and companies currently building in the US will relocate.

Trump asked supporters to "vote like I'm on the ballot, even though my name isn't there" — a direct framing of the midterms as a referendum on his presidency and agenda.

He described the potential Democratic majority as "crazy people," "vicious and violent people," and said Republicans would "crush radical Democrats at the polls" and "uproot communism in America in one fell swoop."

The impeachment warning is politically significant: it signals Trump views his legislative majority as essential to his personal protection, not just his policy agenda. The two are now explicitly linked.