Trump rips allies Oman, South Korea amid escalating tensions with Iran
The Hill · C · trust 50/100
Comments: by Julia Manchester and Rachel Frazin - 08/17/26 6:00 PM ET Comments: Link copied by Julia Manchester and Rachel Frazin - 08/17/26 6:00 PM ET Comments: Link copied NOW PLAYING President Trump is lashing out at rivals and allies alike amid an escalating game of economic chicken between the U.S. and Iran.
On Monday, he threatened to “bomb the s‑‑‑ out of” Oman, a day after he told Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to substantially reduce joint military exercises with South Korea.
Trump separately on Monday doubled down on the idea that the U.S. has total control of the Strait of Hormuz and on the possibility it could be turned into a U.S. territory.
“We control it with the blockade, and I like the idea of declaring it a territory,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
Trump insisted Iran is not a real player in the complex battle with the United States, even as polls show the Iran war hurting Trump’s approval numbers and views on his handling of the economy.
“They can be a nuisance,” Trump said of Iran. “They can put a mine in the water and people don’t like having mines hit their billion dollar ships.”
“We’re taking out millions of barrels of oil a week,” he said of the Strait of Hormuz. “The oil prices are coming down, and they will continue to come down unless we decide to something far drastic, more drastic than what we’re doing.”
Oil prices rose 2.58 percent Monday, to $91.10 per barrel of Brent crude. As of Monday, the average U.S. gasoline price was about $4.06 per gallon, according to AAA , about 93 cents above the price this time last year.
Trump is trying to raise economic pressure on Iran to end the war by strangling its economy with a blockade of Iran’s ports, but Tehran has shown no signs of yielding as it tightens the screws on the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20 percent of the world’s oil supply typically flows.
The conflict between the two countries, which has stretched on for nearly six months, has turned into a battle of the wills as shipping in the strait slows to a halt and global energy prices climb. The problem for Trump is that the midterm elections will take place in less than three months.
“A lot of it does boil down to this staring match and this perseverance contest. I think that if things were to continue just as they are today, the Trump administration probably would have an advantage,” said Clay Seigle, a senior nonresident scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
The problem, he said, is Tehran is well aware of the midterms and the pressure that places on Trump. It has vowed to protect its influence over the strait.
Amir Hatami, Iran’s army commander in chief, reportedly described the strait as a “god-given geopolitical asset for the Iranian nation and this leverage will never return to its former state.”
He added, “We will protect this capacity with all our power.”
To Trump’s point, there do appear to be some ships moving through the strait, but the number is falling, not rising. According to MarineTraffic.com, there were 95 confirmed crossings last week, down from 118 the week prior.
Victoria Coates, a former deputy national security adviser to Trump during his first term, noted that Trump has a point about administering the strait and ensuring it remains “free and open” until the region can do it for itself.
“I know that’s the plan that we should not be there in perpetuity overseeing it. That we’ll figure out another mechanism once we demonstrate it can be done,” she said.
Trump said in a phone interview Monday with Fox News’s Trey Yingst that he is “not in a hurry” to reach a permanent deal with Tehran.
“I have no time schedule,” the president told Fox, confirming his administration has a back channel to communicate directly with officials in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Trump threatened in the same interview to “bomb the s‑‑‑ out of” Oman if the Middle Eastern country, a U.S. ally that acts as a neutral diplomatic meditator with Tehran, gets in the way of U.S. negotiations to reopen the strait. Oman and Iran have been in the process of working on a deal to open new shipping lanes.
Coates said she was surprised Oman has not pushed back more against Iran, noting the Persian Gulf country’s improved global economic standing.
“They’re doing tax reform, rule of law, trying to make it more attractive to do business in Oman, which is probably why the Iranians are suddenly interested in them,” she noted.
“Oman should double down. They should embrace economic freedom and embrace the Emirates. They have other neighbors,” she said.
Trump on Friday described the higher gas prices as small and for a good reason.
“For you to pay a tiny, little bit more for your gasoline, just remember that you’re doing it so that a very evil country ... we don’t want to have them have a nuclear weapon,” he said at a rally in New York.
While the upcoming midterm elections put a ticking clock on Americans’ economic concerns and increase pressure on the Trump administration to act, the ongoing conflict is also damaging Iran’s economy.
Officials recently expressed concern to Reuters about the worsening conditions and potential unrest. The news outlet reported that in July, Iran’s annual inflation rate was 66 percent, citing Iran’s Statistical Centre.
“They can’t recover. There’s no path out of this,” Coates said, describing Iran’s economic conditions as “the worst since Weimar Germany.”
“Maybe they can hang on five, six more months, but they sure as heck can’t hang on two more years,” she said.
Seigle warned that Iran could try to step…
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