Sailor observes the oil tanker HELGA, which is moored at one of Iraq's southern offshore oil terminals near Basra, as it prepares to load crude oil, April 24, 2026. Picture taken with a mobile phone. REUTERS/Mohammed Aty
A sailor was caught on a recorded radio mocking the idea that the Strait of Hormuz is "open," the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.
President Donald Trump was fact-checked to his face earlier this week when he claimed that the Strait of Hormuz was open. While over 100 ships would typically go through on an average day, that number is now down to about a dozen.
The Iranian military insists the waterway is closed again, while the U.S. president says otherwise.
“It’s open, and I don’t want to talk about it, because I want to honor the life of Lindsey Graham,” Trump snapped at “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker. “It’s open, we bombed the hell out of them last night, they’re very very evil and sick people.”
Iran’s Persian Gulf Strait Authority, which was created to help control the shipping lanes, said that passage through the Strait isn't possible. But U.S. Central Command reiterated Trump's claims, saying the Strait of Hormuz was “open to all vessels seeking to lawfully transit the international waterway."
Speaking to CNN's Jake Tapper, Trump swore it's “open as far as we’re concerned."
In a Tuesday morning exchange, U.S. forces tried to reassure ships near the strait that everything was safe.
“U.S. forces are prepared to maintain freedom of navigation and safeguard lawful commerce in accordance with international law. The southern route of the strait remains open," a message said, going across the radios.
The message came over a Marine radio, recorded and sent to the Journal.
According to the report, one U.S. soldier overheard a response on the ship's radio from another sailor, evidently rattled by the instability of the region, telling U.S. forces to "f—— off."
Trump has now unleashed another round of strikes along Iran’s southern coast after ongoing attempts at diplomacy failed again to pry the Strait open. The military targeted missile, drone and naval sites near the waterway, said the report.
"Iran hasn’t budged," wrote the Journal. "It has declared the strait closed and ramped up attacks on commercial ships using cruise missiles as well as drones that left nearly a dozen seafarers dead, wounded or missing in recent days, according to the Pentagon."
In a piece for The New Republic on Wednesday, a Council for Foreign Relations member made it clear that it is possible to lose the same war twice, ushering in a fresh dose of "defeat and humiliation" for the president.