Trump backs off 20% toll on ships in Strait of Hormuz, pushes US investments 

Josh Christenson and Caitlin Doornbos / NEW YORK POST 

WASHINGTON — President Trump backed off his proposed 20% toll on all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz Tuesday, avoiding setting a globally unpopular precedent after Persian Gulf nations offered billions worth of investments in the US.

“I put it out yesterday, I thought it was good. [But] I was called by different people, different countries — kings and emirs, and all of the people that we all know and we all love — and they’ve been, frankly, they’ve been very strong partners,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. 

“And they said ‘We’d love to do it a different way, we’d love to invest in the United States with billions and billions of dollars,'” he added.

Trump explained that while he has long believed the US was taking on more than what was in its interest with the Strait of Hormuz, he struggled with charging a fee “because I don’t think anybody should be able to charge for the strait, or for any other strait relationship in terms of other sections of the world.

“But we were doing it as a reimbursement,” he continued. “The Gulf states are going to invest a tremendous amount of money into the United States, and that was very satisfactory to me. I think it’s actually much better. 

The president added that Gulf allies told him “there’s never been a time like this with the United States, with the factories, with the plants, with everything else, and we would like to invest tremendously in the United States, as opposed to [paying] a fee.”

Ahead of his remarks, Trump said in a Truth Social post the reversal was “[b]ased on highly productive conversations with Middle East Leadership.”

“Those Investments will be MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” he added.

The reversal comes a day after Trump announced the US would take a 20% cut of the value of all cargo flowing through the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for the US becoming the “guardian” of the waterway regularly targeted by Iran. 

One shipping industry expert predicted on Monday that reimbursement could amount to $200 billion annually.

“We’ll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the strait, and we should be reimbursed for that,” Trump had suggested during an interview on “Fox & Friends.”

Those nations included Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait and “others,” he noted.

The US military will still play a role in escorting ships carrying oil and other commercial goods out of the strait, but without imposing a toll — something the president himself has chided Iran for attempting to do.

“It was never fair to me that we would be guarding the strait when we basically don’t take anything. We don’t need the oil at all,” Trump explained. 

“And, it wasn’t important for us, but it was important for allies. It was important for people that we get along with very well.”

Emirati political analyst and author Ahmed Sharif Al Ameri told The Post the swap from fees to investments “runs deeper than a simple swap of payment methods,” saying “investment commitments avoid layering any additional expense on exports that must move through the strait.”

“The investment commitments lock in long-term alignment by creating American stakeholders who benefit directly from stable flows through the strait,” he said. “The numbers, the history and the geopolitics all point to the same result: open passage secured through partnership that delivers measurable gains on both sides of the water.”

That strengthening of the US-Gulf relationship also makes the strait less important — removing Iran’s favorite pressure point — as states in the region have been putting more effort into finding alternative paths for energy exports.

What do you think? Post a comment.

“Iran has long treated the strait as its ultimate lever against sanctions, threatening closure during every major confrontation,” Ameri said. “Gulf states have spent decades building resilience through alternative pipelines and deeper economic ties with Washington.”

“The latest investment commitments accelerate that strategy at the precise moment tensions returned.” See photos and video here.