U.S. President Donald Trump reacts in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., September 19, 2025. REUTERS Ken Cedeno
President Donald Trump’s UN Ambassador Mike Waltz is being roasted on social media for asking other nations to help America open the Strait of Hormuz after it was shut down due to America’s invasion of Iran.
“The administration's been talking about potential navy escorts for more than a week now, shipping executives tell CNN that all their requests for escorts have as of now been rebuffed,” CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Waltz on Sunday. “President Trump said, ‘Hopefully China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and others will send ships to the area.’ Is he hoping that those countries are going to send ships or have they committed to sending ships? And how soon will those naval escorts be ready?”
Waltz told Tapper, “I'll leave those conversations to him. The conversations are ongoing. I think there's an important point that's getting kind of missed in the conversation, that 80% of the oil coming out of the Gulf heads to Asia, only about 7%, 8% heads to the Western Hemisphere. And Thank God for President Trump's energy dominance agenda. Everything from opening up the Anwar pipeline in Alaska, incentivizing fracking, what we're going to see come out of Venezuela and Guyana in the coming months and years.”
After continuing to praise Trump’s energy and foreign policy agenda, Waltz concluded that “we certainly welcome, encourage, and even demand” help from other countries with the Strait of Hormuz. “Meanwhile the US military will continue to pound the Iranian military, their missile boat and drone forces, to keep the straits open.”
Many users of the social media platform X expressed contempt for Waltz’s seemingly entitled attitude.
“The gall of the sick b — —” posted a user called Judy Ellis. “Wasn’t too hard to predict though, was it?” Ellis was not alone. A user called Nancy Levine Stearns similarly called out the president, arguing that “Trump regime can’t demand former allies, which it alienated, to do s — —.”
Similarly a user called Maxwell Black criticized Trump’s policy with a pun, saying that “Trump trapped in a Hormuz Strait jacket.” Black was joined by at least one other X user.
“Other countries owe nothing to the US for starting a war without consulting them and then asking for their help because he can't handle it alone,” posted a user named hcorvin. “Trump is a coward. TRUMP MAKES AMERICA WEAK. Let's spread the message loud and clear TRUMP = AMERICA LAST”
Waltz has previously put egg on the face of the Trump administration. Before serving as UN ambassador Waltz was Trump’s national security adviser, and in that role he aroused indignation when it was revealed he used an insecure platform called Signal to have highly classified and sensitive conversations. Although he was removed from his role in May, Trump reportedly struggled with that decision.
"For much of this week," The New York Times wrote in March, "President Trump was consumed by a single question: What should he do about his national security adviser, Michael Waltz? 'Should I fire him?' he asked aides and allies as the fallout continued over the stunning leak of a Signal group chat set up by Mr. Waltz, who had inadvertently added a journalist to the thread about an upcoming military strike in Yemen. In public, Mr. Trump’s default position has been to defend Mr. Waltz and attack the media."
The Times added, "On Tuesday, (March 25), the day after Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic broke the story about being included in the chat, the president said Mr. Waltz was a 'good man' who had nothing to apologize for. But behind the scenes, Mr. Trump has been asking people inside and outside the administration what they thought he should do."