Sink the Hormuz Tollbooth

By Judson Berger

Friday, July 18, 2026

 

Now that President Trump has backed down from momentarily threatening to toll the Strait of Hormuz, it’s worth emphasizing how crucial it is to sink the idea for good.

 

Secretary of State Marco Rubio was right when he warned last month that letting Iran or any other country treat international waterways as theirs to toll would create “chaos” and that “no country on earth has a right to charge for the use” of them. He warned that such a practice could catch on “like a contagion.”

 

Rather than put that principle in writing, Trump initially agreed to language in the original MOU that fell short of reaffirming freedom of navigation in the strait, as Rich Lowry recounts. The president then compounded that error by floating our own 20 percent fee on shipping, amid the collapse of the MOU in response to Iran’s attacks — only to reverse course, saying he’d strike trade and investment deals with Gulf nations instead.

 

Trump’s threat, to put it mildly, had no teeth. Andy McCarthy provides a reminder of “rudimentary constitutional facts” — as well as general U.S. recognition of free-transit principles in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea — that prohibited Trump from taking it any further. He cautions that were Trump to carry it out, this “would induce other nations to extort payments for transit through international waters and straits of importance to international trade where they are in a position to intimidate shippers”:

 

Free trade would break down, which would be a catastrophe for nations heavily engaged in international trade, such as our own.

 

The problem is that by even considering (or pretending to consider) a toll, Trump kept the precedent that Iran is trying to set on life support, when he should be pulling the plug — not only by using military and diplomatic force to compel Tehran to abandon the plan, but by affirming and operating according to the principle of freedom of navigation.

 

Indeed, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi taunted the U.S. in response by saying Trump is “right” that “whoever provides secure and safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated for this service,” that 20 percent is too much, and that “we will be fair.”

 

In other words, Iran maintains that strait-tolling is legitimate and hopes to exploit the Trump administration’s fee-flirtation to reinforce its position.

 

National Review’s editorial urges Washington to adhere to and promote Rubio’s view, in part to attract allies in pursuit of the goal of free transit: “That is the argument the U.S. should be making — and enforcing.” As Leonardo Bernard, with the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security, recently wrote, allowing a fee-based precedent to be established would drive up consumer prices and destabilize waterways, though international resistance would likely remain strong and resulting increased shipping costs could incentivize alternative routes.

 

All the more reason for America — and all nations — to keep tollbooths confined to the turnpikes where they belong.