Day After Threat to Put Fees on Strait of Hormuz, Trump Says He Denounces Idea
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U.S. President Donald Trump has swiftly backtracked his threat to impose a 20 percent fee on cargo that passes through the Strait of Hormuz, calling off the plan just a day after he announced it — and claiming that, in fact, he never supported such an idea.
Instead of the proposed 20 percent fee, the U.S. will be granted economic deals with other countries in the region in exchange for passage through the strait, Trump said, without providing any specifics.
“Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “Those Investments will be MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future.”
It’s unclear what investments Trump is referring to. Speaking to reporters in the White House on Tuesday, Trump said that he “was called by different people, different countries, kings and emirs” after his announcement on Monday morning. However, the Trump administration did not announce new major economic deals with Persian Gulf nations at the time that Trump announced his........
