Ex-diplomat: 'No one's in total control of the Strait of Hormuz'

Former U.S. diplomat Richard Haass said Wednesday that no country is in control of the Strait of Hormuz, contradicting President Trump's claim that the U.S. is in "total control" of the crucial waterway. "No one's in total control of the Strait of Hormuz," Haass told host Willie Geist on MS NOW's "Morning Joe." But Trump said otherwise on Tuesday, as the U.S. war with Iran approaches the six-month mark. "We have total control over the Hormuz strait right now, they don't have control," Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews, referring to Iran. "We have total control, we own it and at some point, maybe they'll do something and then they get blown away." The president doubled down on those remarks Wednesday morning, after Haass pushed back against his Tuesday comments. "The U.S.A. has total control over the Strait of Hormuz," Trump wrote on Truth Social. "I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!" Trump also called the U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports a "WALL OF STEEL," and he argued "there is nothing Iran can do about it." On Tuesday, the U.S. military disabled a Panama-flagged cargo tanker attempting to transit the Gulf of Oman in violation of the blockade. But Haass, the U.S. special envoy for Northern Ireland under former President George W. Bush, noted it is easier to "deny use of the Strait of Hormuz than it is to guarantee" it. "So, we can deny use to the extent we want to Iran," Haass said on MS NOW. "Iran can deny use to others; insurers won't insure cargo ships or tankers. So, denial's relatively easy." "Guaranteeing use, relatively hard. So that's where the strait is, [there's] very little traffic going through, much less than went through before the war... began," he continued. Officials in Iran and Oman are negotiating a deal to reopen the waterway, through which nearly 34 percent of the world's crude oil passed in 2025, according to the International Energy Agency. But in recent days, officials from the Islamic Republic and Trump have traded demands — with each side pushing back on the other. Iranian officials have called for the U.S. to withdraw its naval blockade, pay damages for the war, unfreeze the country's assets and permanently end the conflict, but the president on Monday demanded compensation for those the Iranian regime has "killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts," along with the families of protesters Iranian authorities have killed over the past five decades. Trump also said Iran "should be responsible" for damages the people of Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Gaza have weathered amid the war.