This will go down GREAT... Gulf oil will have to handle a 20% tariff vs. the rest of the world to get to market. Fertilizer, etc, anything made in the Gulf will be hit with this tariff independent of any trade agreement that might be in place with the US. Great, great way to encourage production from other regions of the world and with substitute products.

Although to be honest, oil companies will just charge everybody the tariff and pocket the profits.

I'm getting the popcorn ready. This will be interesting.

Whilst I'm glad I got myself an EV, I'm entirely aware of the society-wide effects this will have on, literally, almost everything, from general inflation to food insecurity due to the fertilizer situation.

How much money has this single bad decision cost the population of the planet?

Straight up $5,000 my parents had to pay extra for their flight to Europe which was already booked. And that was just for changed flights due to Emirates (I think) being grounded.

Trump will be richer just by dint of having made everyone else poorer by a measurable amount.

This looks like seeing the Iranian demands to be paid for transit, and saying "Nice business model; let's steal it".

But there's a larger point here. Iran has been using the ability to close the Strait as leverage. "We can deny the transit of oil, so you have to not trample on our interests." Well, the US also has the capability to close the Strait, and therefore the same leverage - including that leverage over Iranian oil.

And by Trump saying this, he's pointing that out. Pointing it out in a way the Iranians should understand, because it's the same language that they used.

I don't know if Trump is deliberately doing that, or just doing an extortion threat.

Perhaps one day we’ll have a government not made up of dementia patients who can’t seem to remember what they just said and did the previous week.