President Donald Trump on Wednesday floated renaming the Strait of Hormuz — the strategic waterway at the center of the U.S.-led war with Iran — after himself, but later suggested the idea was not a serious proposal.
In a Truth Social post Wednesday morning, Trump wrote: “Now that we have it under U.S.A. control, should we change the name Hormuz Strait to TRUMP STRAIT???” He added, “Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before! Thank you for your attention to this matter.” The post came less than a week after Trump signed an executive order to rename Lake Ontario to “Lake America” amid his intensifying feud with Canada.
Asked at the White House on Wednesday afternoon whether he truly intended to rename the strait, Trump said, “No, no … it was just thrown out there.”
The president’s remarks on Hormuz follow a pattern of proposed geographic renamings during his second term. Earlier, he declared the Gulf of Mexico would be known as the Gulf of America — a change rejected by Mexico and other international counterparts. The Lake Ontario order directed Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to update the Geographic Names Information System, though Canada rejected that change. Google and Apple have recently updated their maps to reflect the new name.
It remains unclear how the U.S. would attempt to implement a name change for the Strait of Hormuz, which is not near American shores. The strait has carried roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil trade before the war began in late February, according to the administration’s repeated assertions.
The Trump administration has insisted that Iran has lost control over the strait, though transits through the waterway remain far below prewar levels. Ship trackers indicate traffic has dropped further in recent days as military strikes in the region resumed following a weekslong hiatus.
Administration officials assert that total oil exports from the region are now higher than before the war, counting Saudi Arabia’s and the United Arab Emirates’ pipelines that bypass Hormuz. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright told CNBC on Wednesday that more than 17 million barrels of oil transited the strait on Monday, a wartime record. By comparison, around 20 million barrels per day of crude and products passed through the strait before the conflict started on Feb. 28.
Source: www.cnbc.com — https://www.cnbc.com/2026/09/02/trump-hormuz-strait-ontario-iran.html
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