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Four and a half months after Donald Trump said his war against Iran would last a matter of weeks, the conflict continues to spiral. After a tenuous ceasefire deal collapsed, Trump announced today that he would reimpose a U.S. naval blockade of Iranian ports—but with a new twist that looks more than a little corrupt. Let’s get you up to speed.

Back up. What’s the latest on the fighting? As we explained last week, the ceasefire fell apart after Iran reportedly shot at commercial ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, a key trade route it claims control over. The U.S. fired back, and exchanges continued into the weekend. Now Trump says the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports along the strait, which he lifted after the two countries reached their ceasefire deal last month, is back on.

So we’re back to where we were before the ceasefire?Not quite. Trump’s blockade comes with a destabilizing new caveat: He wants the U.S. to collect a 20 percent fee on cargo passing through the strait. As of last week, the Navy had secretly been helping ships navigate a southerly route farther from Iran’s coast, apparently for free. But on Fox News this morning, Trump vowed that the U.S. would “get paid for guarding” the waterway. Oil prices spiked after Trump’s announcement, which amounts to a new........

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