US President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz as “Trump Strait” amid ongoing hostilities with Iran—then hours later implied he wasn’t serious.
The US president has made a series of geographical name changes to international bodies of water in his second term, at least partly with the aim of trolling other countries.
The latest suggestion came as Trump asserted that the US has complete control of the vital waterway, despite new conflicts with Iran.
“Now that we have it under USA control, should we change the name of the Hormuz Strait to Trump Strait??? Like America itself, it would be ‘hotter’ than ever before!” Trump said on his Truth Social network.
The White House later shared a map of the Gulf with his suggested name on social media, saying, “It’s got a nice ring to it.”
In recent weeks, Trump has repeatedly threatened to assert sovereignty over the Strait of Hormuz, even posting a map depicting the waterway as a “new US territory.”
Trump later downplayed the idea of rebranding the Strait of Hormuz.
“It was just thrown out there,” Trump said with a chuckle after an AFP reporter asked him in the Oval Office if he was serious about renaming it.
However, several of the 80-year-old Republican’s earlier recommendations were rejected as amusing before becoming reality.
In the midst of a trade war with neighboring Canada, Trump issued an order renaming Lake Ontario “Lake America” last week, only days after seemingly joking about the concept.
On his first day back in the White House in January 2025, Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America.” Neither Mexico nor Canada has approved the revisions.
He has also been renaming objects after himself, including the Kennedy Arts Center in Washington, while the US Treasury produced $1 coins depicting Trump’s likeness on Wednesday to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the United States’ independence.
The Iran conflict is still a deadly serious issue, with no signs of resolution more than six months after the original US-Israeli assault.
After weeks of relative calm, fighting flared up again on Tuesday, with US forces launching new attacks near the Strait of Hormuz in response to what Trump claimed were new minelaying activities by Iran.
Iran declared one of the US strikes a “war crime” when it killed four people at a wedding and unleashed a wave of retaliation strikes against US bases in Jordan, the UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Iraq.
At home, Trump has presided over a sharp increase in US gasoline expenses as a result of the war, and his Republican Party appears poised to lose at least some control of Congress in the November midterm elections.
In retribution for the conflict Trump launched with Israel in late February, Iran has effectively shut down the choke point that transports a fifth of the world’s oil.
Trump said on Wednesday that the United States was ready to attack Iran again—while adding that the renewed campaign would not last “too long.”
“It was a very heavy attack last night, and we’re prepared to do another one any time we want,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
