Donald Trump taunted Iran as he labelled the Strait of Hormuz “Trump Strait” after Tehran proposed a deal to open the key waterway within a week if the US meets certain conditions.
In a post on his Truth Social platform in the early hours of Saturday, the US president shared a picture of a map, with the shipping route labelled with his own name.
It comes after Iran's foreign minister Abbas Araghchi presented a seven-day plan involving a ceasefire to American negotiators on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York this week. The conditions for Washington largely echo the ones agreed to in the June deal that fell apart.
They stated that Tehran would reopen the key waterway and resume talks on its nuclear programme but only if the US lifts its naval blockade, waives oil sanctions and observes a ceasefire that includes Lebanon.
Lifting the US naval blockade of Iranian ports, as well as waiving sanctions on oil sales, would allow Tehran to ship out more of its crude and help its economy as its currency hits record lows and inflation soars.
Araqchi told reporters at the United Nations on Friday that the deal would trigger a seven-day countdown to reopening the strait and a pause in regional fighting.
"If there is seriousness on the US side to come to a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz, everything is now prepared," he said.
The White House said it was engaged in “constructive discussions” via mediators, but a Wall St Journal report cited US officials as saying Trump was sceptical that Iran would meet his demands.
Trump’s Saturday Truth Social post is the latest example of him coming up with his own names for locations to attempt to make a political point.
He posted a map on Truth Social of New Mexico earlier this month, but the word Mexico was crossed out and replaced with America.
‘Naming’ the southwestern state on the US-Mexico border as New America was reminiscent of an executive order he signed early in his second term, in which he changed the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
In that January 2025 executive order titled “Restoring Names That Honor American Greatness,” Trump also changed the name of North America’s tallest peak, Denali in Alaska, back to Mount McKinley.
Trump’s controversial naming of America’s geography didn’t stop there. The president signed an executive order late last month changing the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America amid an escalating trade war with Canada.
Despite Trump repeatedly suggesting Canada become the nation’s 51st state, he recently told Fox News, “They think they’re a state, but they’re not a state. Why should we be subsidizing Canada?”
