US President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that Iran was “collapsing financially” over the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
“Iran is collapsing financially! They want the Strait of Hormuz opened immediately,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. The Islamic Republic is “starving for cash” and its military and police were “complaining that they are not getting paid,” he claimed, adding: “SOS!!!”
Trump’s comments came hours after he announced he was indefinitely extending the two-week ceasefire with Iran, due to Tehran’s government being “seriously fractured.”
Iran last week briefly lifted its blockade following the Israel-Hezbollah ceasefire, but reversed course after the US said it would maintain the blockade it had imposed on Iran-linked shipping on April 13, five days into the truce.
According to Trump, Iran was “losing 500 Million Dollars a day” because the US closure was preventing Tehran from taxing ships sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.
“They want it open so they can make $500 Million a day,” Trump wrote in a separate Truth Social post early Wednesday.
Trump suggested the US blockade was crucial as leverage in negotiations with Iran, saying that if he agrees to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, “There can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their country, their leaders included!”
“They only say they want it closed because I have it totally BLOCKADED (CLOSED!). They merely want to save face,” he said, in an apparent departure from the Pentagon’s original framing of the US blockade as targeting only Iran-linked ships rather than the entire strait.
Meanwhile, US Treasury Scott Bessent said on X that the US blockade “directly targets the regime’s primary revenue lifelines” by constraining maritime trade.
“Kharg Island storage will be full and the fragile Iranian oil wells will be shut in,” said Bessent, referring to the Iranian shipping hub that the US has targeted during the war with Iran and through which 90 percent of Tehran’s oil exports pass.
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