The Toll Trump Was Told He Couldn't Charge

On July 11, the United States gave Iran 24 hours to commit to keeping the Strait of Hormuz toll-free. The demand was the same one American diplomats had been making for weeks. Marco Rubio had stated the principle plainly.

It's an international waterway. No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. — Marco Rubio

Two days later, on July 13, Donald Trump imposed a 20 percent fee on cargo passing through the strait and declared the United States would become the guardian of the strait. Traffic through Hormuz collapsed from 40 vessels to six. ^[1] The whiplash was not improvisation. It was the return of an idea Trump first proposed on April 7, when he said the U.S. could simply take control of the waterway and charge for it. ^[2]

With a little more time, we can easily OPEN THE HORMUZ STRAIT, TAKE THE OIL, & MAKE A FORTUNE. IT WOULD BE A 'GUSHER' FOR THE WORLD??? — Donald Trump

That April, the idea was killed before it could take root. The United Kingdom led a 40-country coalition to defend free passage. The International Maritime Organization and the European Union both rejected tolls on an international waterway as a violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. ^[3] Trump backed down. The strait reopened on April 13, and the blockade was framed as explicitly temporary. ^[4]

THE STRAIT OF HORMUZ IS COMPLETELY OPEN AND READY FOR BUSINESS AND FULL PASSAGE, BUT THE NAVAL BLOCKADE WILL REMAIN IN FULL FORCE AND EFFECT AS IT PERTAINS TO IRAN, ONLY, UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE. — Donald Trump

Through June, the U.S. position hardened around the principle that tolls were illegal — and not just Iran's tolls. When Iran and Oman jointly proposed transit fees on July 7, Washington rejected them. On June 26, when Trump reached a deal to reopen the strait, the agreement explicitly required it to remain toll-free. Rubio was categorical. ^[5]

They said in the meeting and they signed on to the statement that said there aren’t going to be any fees or tolls, and so I think that’s good news. — Marco Rubio

On July 10, the IMO's governing council formally condemned Iran's Persian Gulf Strait Authority and rejected its sovereignty claims over Hormuz. ^[6] The ruling was legal ammunition for the American position — and the U.S. used it. The next day came the ultimatum demanding Iran commit to a toll-free strait. Then, on July 12, Trump's language shifted. He was no longer talking about keeping the strait open as a public good. He was talking about getting paid.

We're going to get paid for guarding it - a lot of money. — Donald Trump

He proposed the U.S. would take over and manage the strait and said wealthy allied nations should reimburse America for serving as its guardian. ^[7] By July 13, the conditional coercion of April — a blockade with a sunset, a toll proposal withdrawn when the world objected — had become an open-ended claim of control. The fee was 20 percent. The guardian language was permanent. The sunset clause was gone. ^[1] The arc is not subtle. In April, Trump ordered the Navy to interdict any vessel in international waters that had paid a toll to Iran — treating tolls as the problem. ^[8] In July, he became the toll collector. In April, he said he did not need international law.

I do not need international law, only my own morality. — Donald Trump

Three months and one collapsed coalition later, he is acting on it. The 40 countries that stopped him in April are not lined up to stop him now. The IMO ruling that condemned Iran's claims now sits awkwardly beside an American fee that violates the same legal framework. The guardian of freedom of navigation has become the gatekeeper who charges for passage — adopting Iran's model while denying Iran the right to have one.