Trump Orders Navy to Destroy Iranian Boats Mining Strait of Hormuz, Reposted Column That Advocates More Killing

President Donald Trump warned Iran today that the U.S. Navy would destroy boats that are laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz.

The threat comes after he announced an extension of the two-week ceasefire that was to end last night, as Pakistan attempted to persuade Iran to negotiate an end to the war. How well that effort can go is now open to question.

Multiple posts on X today reported that Iran’s chief negotiator, Parliament Speaker Bagher Ghalibaf, has resigned from Iran’s negotiating team, but an Iranian journalist called those reports “ridiculous.”

And Trump reposted on X a line from Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen, who argues that the Iranians need a deal and Trump doesn’t. Trump must therefore kill anti-peace deal officials.

Who’s the Leader?

Trump took to Truth Social this morning to unbosom himself of another threat, as is his custom.

“I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be (Their naval ships are ALL, 159 of them, at the bottom of the sea!), that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote:

There is to be no hesitation. Additionally, our mine “sweepers” are clearing the Strait right now. I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level! 

Trump followed that with another post about supposed infighting among Iranian officials over who is running the country, and a claim that the U.S. Navy has sealed the strait.

“Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is!” Trump continued:

They just don’t know! The infighting is between the “Hardliners,” who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the “Moderates,” who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), is CRAZY! We have total control over the Strait of Hormuz. No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States Navy. It is “Sealed up Tight,” until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!!

A report from U.S. Central Command appears to confirm Trump’s claim.

“U.S. forces have directed 29 vessels to turn around or return to port as part of the U.S. blockade against Iran,” CENTCOM reported:

Over past 24 hours, media reports have alleged that several commercial ships evaded the blockade, citing M/V Hero II, M/V Hedy, and M/V Dorena as examples. These reports are inaccurate.

Hero II and Hedy did not sail past the blockade as part of a flotilla that “ferried” millions of barrels of oil to the market. In fact, the Iranian-flagged tankers are anchored in Chah Bahar, Iran, after being intercepted by U.S. forces earlier this week. Dorena has been under the escort of a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Indian Ocean after previously attempting to violate the blockade. 

On Tuesday, Trump claimed that the blockade had collapsed Iran’s economy, and that the nation was losing $500 million daily.

Iranian Infighting

Iran’s internal political disarray has become something of an administration narrative in the past two days, buttressed by reporting from Axios, whose reporter, Barak Ravid, formerly toiled for Israeli military intelligence.

While Trump told CNBC’s Squawk Box yesterday that “I expect to be bombing,” Tuesday night he said the ceasefire would continue.

“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote:

I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other.

That ceasefire, Axios’ Ravid reported, would last three to five days. U.S. officials “worry they may not have anyone in Tehran empowered to say yes” to a peace deal. As well, the website revealed, a “source close to Trump” said he “doesn’t want to use military force anymore and has made a decision to end the war.” But that doesn’t mean Trump won’t order more bombing. If Iran refuses to come to the negotiating table, “the military option is back on the table.”

Iranian Negotiator Quits?

Reports from the region conflict about Ghalibaf’s supposed resignation from Iran’s negotiating team. The claim appears to be Israeli propaganda. 

“The ridiculous news from #Israel’s Channel 12 that @mb_ghalibaf  has resigned from the #Iran’s negotiating team, which was also republished by Al Arabiya, is completely false,” Mohammad Ghaderi wrote.

As far as the negotiations go, Trump retweeted a line from chicken-hawk neoconservative shill Marc Thiessen.

The Iranians “are betting that Trump, under political and economic pressure at home, does not want to restart the war,” Thiessen wrote in his column for The Washington Post:

Trump needs to disabuse them of that notion. He has reportedly told Iran that it has three to five days to make a serious counteroffer. If it fails to do so, he should resume combat operations — starting with strikes targeting Iran’s recalcitrant leaders. If the Iranian regime is really “fractured” between a faction that wants a deal and a faction that does not, there is a simple solution: Kill the faction that does not.

The truth is, Iran needs a deal more than Trump does. The country has been battered militarily by almost 40 days of unrelenting strikes, and now it is being battered economically by Trump‘s naval blockade of its ports, which U.S. Central Command reports it has “completely halted economic trade going into and out of Iran by sea.”

Over video of Thiessen arguing on Fox News that Trump must kill everyone Thiessen thinks deserves killing, podcaster Glenn Greenwald observed that “One of the most amazing aspects of the Iran War is that they excavated the people who sold the Iraq War to the American public to sell this, and they are all using the same exact scripts they used for Iraq.”