Joe Biden spent four years teaching the world that America blinks first.
Trump picked up the phone with Brian Kilmeade this morning and sent a two-word message to every ship captain anchored outside the Strait of Hormuz.
What he said next made clear that the era of American hesitation is over.
Trump Tells Tanker Captains to Sail Through the Strait of Hormuz
Kilmeade opened the conversation by asking Trump how he planned to get energy prices down.
Trump didn’t pivot to policy frameworks or diplomatic channels.
He sent a direct message to the men running those ships.
“Tell these tankers to get themselves, get to it,” Trump told Kilmeade. “We have wiped out most of their launchers.”
Then he spelled it out: “These ships should go through the Strait of Hormuz and show some guts. There’s nothing to be afraid of. They have no navy – we sunk all their ships.”
That’s not spin from a press secretary.
That’s the commander-in-chief, in plain English, delivering a gut check to an industry that has been sitting on its hands while prices climb past $100 a barrel.
Kilmeade summed up Trump’s message on air: “He’s saying, ‘Come on, guys. Get to it!'”
Operation Epic Fury Has Destroyed 80 Percent of Iran’s Navy
Trump’s challenge isn’t bluster for the cameras.
The numbers behind it tell the story.
U.S. forces have sunk or critically damaged more than 42 Iranian naval vessels since Operation Epic Fury launched on February 28 – including Iran’s naval headquarters at Bandar Abbas, which satellite imagery shows burning to the waterline.
Not a single Iranian ship was underway in the Persian Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz, or the Gulf of Oman as of last week.
Trump told Kilmeade that Iran’s remaining missile launchers – roughly 150 – represent about 20 percent of their original capacity. “They can’t regenerate,” Trump said. “They can’t make any more.”
Energy Secretary Chris Wright backed that up on Fox News Sunday: “One large tanker has already gone through the straits with no issues at all. We’re massively attriting their ability to strike with missiles and drones, and that rate of attrition will increase in the coming days.”
He added: “Energy will flow soon.”
Kilmeade also reported that the administration is sending additional naval assets to the region – and the taxpayer-funded U.S. Development Finance Corporation has been ordered to provide political risk insurance for all maritime trade moving through the Gulf.
Trump isn’t just asking captains to be brave.
He’s removing every excuse for standing still.
Chuck Schumer Wants to Drain the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Instead
While Trump was calling captains to action, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer had a different idea.
Schumer issued a statement Sunday demanding Trump immediately tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.
“The Strategic Petroleum Reserve exists for moments exactly like this,” Schumer said – apparently believing that draining America’s emergency stockpile beats opening one of the most important shipping lanes on the planet.
Biden burned through the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to juice poll numbers during an election year – the largest drawdown in its history.
Now Schumer wants Trump to repeat that mistake instead of finishing the job.
Trump’s answer, posted to Truth Social Sunday, was direct: “Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace. ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!”
The Real Stakes Behind the Gut Check
The Strait of Hormuz has never been fully closed in recorded maritime history.
Roughly one-fifth of the world’s entire oil supply moves through that narrow passage between Iran and Oman.
For ten days, tanker traffic dropped to near zero while captains waited for guarantees no one in history has ever been able to provide.
Trump isn’t offering guarantees.
He’s offering U.S. Navy escorts and a personal challenge from the president of the United States.
One tanker already made it through Sunday night without incident – turning its transponder off before the strait and switching it back on after clearing it.
The Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s saw Kuwaiti tankers reflagged under the American banner and escorted through these same waters when Iran threatened them then too – .
As many in the media enthusiastically recalled during the early days of the second Gulf War with Iraq, the U.S. openly backed Sadam Heusein in the conflict.
What is often forgotten is that during the Iran-Iraq War – which began shortly after Ayatollah Khomeini seized power in the Islamic Revolution 49 years ago – the Israel government began its first military equipment sales to the Iranian government of Ayatollah Khomeini, according to reports from the New York Times and numerous others.
The covert arms sales were done with explicit permission of the American government, a senior Israeli official was reported admitting by the Times in 1986.
The ships ran then – certainly with oil and some it seems with arms for Khomeini courtesy of the Israeli government.
Today, the question Trump has put to the men on those bridges is simple: are you going to let a much depleted Iranian navy stop you from doing your job?
That’s not a question anyone had to ask during the Biden years – because under Biden, America was the one standing down.
Trump inherited a world that learned not to take Washington’s word for anything.
In nine days of Operation Epic Fury, he’s rebuilding that credibility one sunken Iranian warship at a time.
The strait is open.
The navy that threatened it is at the bottom of the sea.
And the president of the United States just went on national television and told the world to act like it.
Jim Hoft, “TRUMP TO OIL TANKERS: ‘SHOW SOME GUTS!'” The Gateway Pundit, March 9, 2026.
“Trump Sends Message to Tankers as Oil Prices Spike: ‘Show Some Guts!'” Mediaite, March 9, 2026.
“Fires Rage at Iran’s Bandar Abbas Naval Headquarters, Strait of Hormuz Traffic Stalled,” Fox News, March 2, 2026.
“US Forces Take Out 20-Plus Ships as Part of Effort to Sink Iranian Fleet,” Stars and Stripes, March 4, 2026.
“US Signals Readiness to Escort Tankers Through Hormuz as Traffic Thins,” Fox News, March 6, 2026.
“Trump: U.S. Navy May Escort Tankers Through Strait of Hormuz,” USNI News, March 3, 2026.
“Donald Trump Urges Tanker Crews to Brave Strait of Hormuz,” The Hill, March 9, 2026.
As we have been informed for many years, past presidents have discussed the problem of Iran and have dealt with it in a number of ways like paying them off to pacify them and others tried diplomacy. All the while the people and Israel were the ones who suffered due to the proxy groups who did their bidding.
Now that our President has made his move in this regard, it seems ex-President Clinton is expressing his views about the situation – which is okay. His history lesson on Iran was very interesting; but, I am concerned that his take sounded like he was very uncomfortable with the action taken by our President. We cannot live in a world when tyrants are constantly threatening the population in our country.
When this happens and diplomacy is not on the table and should be – then we are dealing with an irrational person (Iran) and that has been recognized. All countries should pull together and make it known as a body that the world will not allow Iran to have weapons of mass destruction.
This won’t be easy because Iran bombed their own neighbors. That alone should tell them all they need to know. The hate is in Iran’s heart and is the problem.
I am only writing this because I don’t trust the Clinton’s. His opinion and the manner in which he spoke led me to believe, there is a motive behind the tone of his words – like a frightened person..
Was it to frighten people so they wouldn’t vote for Republicans in the next election and allow the Democrats to return to their old position of cowering to the world? And, the fact he doesn’t respect the President.
May God help us make the right decision.
****
The rest of the Clinton story. He speaks of the Constitution. Where was it during the last 12 years with Obama/Biden?
ttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWA7hjG24Oc
Is this political postering for the Democrats? Or is this a new strategy to “get” the President? Did he forget he is not in the government and not in charge? His tone was different in this video.
kommonsentsjane 