The State Department is busting President Donald Trump's bubble with it's new move to avoid the Strait of Hormuz.
The Washington Sun reported Monday that the U.S. government is quietly admitting that sending supplies through the Strait of Hormuz is currently too risky and unreliable. It's happening after weeks of Trump repeatedly claiming the U.S. fully controls the waterway and that it is open for business.
The U.S. Embassy in Kuwait needs regular shipments of supplies, and that cargo typically moves through the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow waterway between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Due to the war between the U.S. and Iran, the latter is threatening to strike any ship it hasn't authorized. So, ships aren't moving through unless they've worked something out with Iran.
“The security situation in the region remains fluid and subject to sudden escalation,” the department said in a notice to vendors. It was posted on a government contracting website.
According to the report, the State Department said standard shipping routes are currently unreliable or unavailable because of rapidly changing regional security risks. So it hired another company for $26,908 to move the embassy’s freight through an unspecified alternative route instead.
The Sun noted that the statement is "undercutting President Donald Trump’s assertions that the strait is open and under U.S. control."
Indeed, Trump has stated either publicly or on Truth Social that the Strait is perfectly safe.
“We have total control over the Strait… The Strait is open," he said on Aug. 17, according to a White House fact sheet.
Two days later, according to the same fact sheet, Trump claimed, “Right now, the Strait is open. A lot of boats are coming through. People aren’t reporting that … The naval blockade has been extremely effective.”
Aug. 26, he said, “The Strait is open. We take a lot of ships through the Strait now … It’s a very functioning Strait. A lot of oil is pouring out.”
On Aug. 27, Trump claimed, "The Strait of Hormuz is open. We have control, and we have the blockade. Iran is not getting anything; nothing is going through."
As recently as Sept. 9, Trump was promising the country before his Dallas convention, “We’ll win it. We’re winning it. We control the Hormuz Strait.”
Traffic remains well below normal transit levels, and carriers are treating the route as hazardous. In a statement released on Sept. 16, the global Danish shipping and logistics company Maersk announced that it has suspended or rerouted some Gulf shipping. They're also adding emergency freight charges and said that they too will have alternative routing plans for cargo bound for Kuwait and other Gulf states.
