President Trump said Wednesday he’s thinking of renaming the Strait of Hormuz — after himself.
Mr. Trump floated the idea while pointing to the Navy’s hold on the oil choke point, which runs between Iran and Oman and is at the heart of efforts to end the U.S. war with Tehran.
“Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT??? Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before!” Mr. Trump said on Truth Social.
The president mused about the renaming days after he signed an executive order to formally rename Lake Ontario as Lake America.
Leading map providers such as Google Maps changed the name on their platforms, raising cheers from the White House.
The renaming is a swipe at Canada. Washington and Ottawa are locked in a nasty trade war.
Canadian officials said the lake’s name comes from an indigenous word and predates the name of the province, which took its name from the lake.
Mr. Trump started his second term by renaming the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.
The decisions are part of Mr. Trump’s legacy effort to reshape maps and the physical landscape of the nation’s capital, including the construction of a massive White House ballroom.
More specifically, the Trump Strait idea speaks to the president’s belief that the U.S. has full control of Hormuz. He’s imposing a Navy blockade of Iranian ports and shipping in the waterway to pressure Iran economically.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Wednesday said U.S. efforts are paying off, with 17 million barrels of oil passing through the strait on Monday.
About 20 million barrels flowed through the strait daily before the war.
Speaking on CNBC, Mr. Wright said new pipeline efforts in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, combined with Hormuz volume, resulted in more oil flowing from the region than before the war.
“With or without Iran, oil and gas will flow out of the Arabian Gulf region, and it’s happening,” Mr. Wright said.
Iran says it still controls the strait. It is looking to use it as leverage by controlling traffic and possibly charging tolls in the waterway, which carried a fifth of the world’s oil supply before the war.
Mr. Trump, working with Israel, launched airstrikes against Iran on Feb. 28 to prevent Tehran from gaining a nuclear weapon. The war recently passed the six-month mark.
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