From “technocracy.news”
On August 14, 2026, President Donald Trump stood in front of a law-enforcement crowd at the David S. Mack Center for Training and Intelligence in Garden City, Long Island. Trump told them that after “defeating Iran” he would declare the Strait of Hormuz a territory of the United States. Wait for it… The Strait of America?
NOTUS (News of the United States) recorded Trump’s words:
“After we finish defeating Iran, I will be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States.”
Al Jazeera and USA Today carried more of the same speech. He said “pretty soon” he would declare it, then he pointed to the naval blockade: “Essentially, that’s what it is. We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to.”
Let me be clear. This is not a stunt. It is the next move on IMEC.
On March 18, 2026, I published a white paper here, “IMEC: Trump’s War With Iran Is About Global Trade.” I wrote it to lay bare the myths surrounding the war in Iran and to expose the master plan to restructure global trade routes in order to dominate world trade. This is a tectonic shift in the geopolitical structure of the world. Further, this is the master plan for global Technocracy, even down to making Gaza into the poster child for the technocratic state. If you cannot connect the dots here, then you will be left in the fog.
On April 23 I stated the formula in public:
I posit that the war against Iran had nothing to do with nuclear material, but rather it was about gaining control of the Strait of Hormuz. That said, remember that the media is always reflective, not causative; whatever narrative it carries is never original. The Strait of Hormuz is the what. IMEC is the why. The nuclear program was the excuse.
The territory talk is the same argument, just one step later.
What IMEC Is, and Why Hormuz Sits in the Middle
IMEC stands for the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. On September 9, 2023, India, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, France, Germany, Italy, and the European Union signed it at the G20 Summit in New Delhi. In plain words, it is a new trade route. Rails. Ports. Energy lines. Fiber cables. Cargo would move from India by sea into the Gulf, then by rail across Saudi Arabia to the Israeli port of Haifa, then by ship to Europe. Trump later called it “one of the greatest trade routes in all of history.”
The eastern sea lane of that route runs through the Persian Gulf. There is only one way in or out: the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran sits on the north shore. Oman sits on the south shore. At the narrows, the sea is about 20 to 21 nautical miles wide. Every tanker leaving the Gulf terminals that IMEC depends on must pass Hormuz, unless Iran decides otherwise.
I wrote this in my book The New Economics of Technocracy, and I will repeat it here. The most important choke point of global trade is the Strait of Hormuz, and the spoiler is Iran.
That is not a side issue. A Gulf shipping lane that Iran can shut cannot carry a world trade route. The war that began on February 28, 2026, under the name Operation Epic Fury, was the how of clearing the spoiler. IMEC is the why. Nuclear material was the excuse.
Oman is on the same map for two reasons. First, geography. The south side of Hormuz is Omani water. Second, the bypass. I noted in that same book that Oman’s ports of Duqm, Salalah, and Sohar sit outside the Strait, on the Arabian Sea. Money has been moving into those ports as alternate hubs. The people building IMEC planned a way around Hormuz. They knew Iran was the problem.
Now Trump is threatening to bomb Oman if it doesn’t straighten up.
What Trump Said in the Last Four Days
On August 13, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Navy can hold the blockade “indefinitely.”
On August 14 came the Garden City line about U.S. territory.
On August 17, Trump told Fox News reporter Trey Yingst, “If Oman gets in the way, we’ll bomb the s**t out of them.” Fox released no audio. Later that day, in the Oval Office, he claimed, “We have total control over the strait.” That is his claim. It is not a fact on the water. A trickle of ships still moves. Hits continue. On August 18 the U.K. Maritime Trade Operations office reported a cargo ship struck in the strait.
Also on August 17, Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Esmail Baghaei (not the foreign minister), said “an understanding has been reached regarding the map of the transit route.” The reported plan: enter near Iran, exit near Oman, no extra tolls for now. Trump told Yingst the United States had a backchannel to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. An IRGC spokesman, to Tasnim, called that a lie.
On August 18, Trump posted a Truth Social map labeled “New U.S. Territory.” He wrote that “there are no talks or conversations going on, or scheduled.” He said the blockade was “in full force and effect” and that “All water mines have been removed or detonated.” U.S. Central Command would not confirm the mine claim.
He had already said the same thing in May: “Oman will behave just like everybody else, or we will have to blow them up.” Senator Tim Kaine said he will bring a war-powers resolution to bar military action against Oman.
A June understanding between the sides, which the BBC dates to June 18, ran sixty days and expired on August 17. Trump told the BBC he was not extending it.
Oil tells you why the choke point matters. Before the war, about one-fifth of the world’s oil and LNG moved through Hormuz. The U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on August 12 that the flow was about 21 million barrels a day in 2025 and 4.9 million in the second quarter of 2026.
This Is a Claim on a Trade Route, Not a U.N. Case
Some are trying to drag this into the United Nations and the Law of the Sea. The United States rejected that treaty. Iran signed it and never ratified it. Neither Washington nor Tehran lives under it. The U.N. is irrelevant to the argument. Geography is not. Iran on the north. Oman on the south. The strait in between is the choke point of IMEC.
Can a president make it American by saying so? Bruce Fein, associate deputy attorney general under President Reagan, said the American rule is plain. To take territory, the United States needs a treaty ratified by the Senate or a law passed by Congress. A speech does not do it. A map on social media does not do it.
That answers the legal question inside the United States. It does not answer why he said it.
He said it because the next step after a blockade is a claim of ownership. If you hold the choke point, you hold the new trade route. Public money and private money are already building the rails, the ports, the cables, and the energy lines. Military force is being used to remove the spoiler. “Territory” is the word you use when you want the world to treat that choke point as yours.
Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi said the strait “cannot be seized by tweet, nor by aircraft carrier,” and that it “has been Iranian, is Iranian, and will remain Iranian.” Of course Tehran said that. Iran is the spoiler on the north shore. Oman is the partner on the south shore, now being told to stand aside or be bombed. The White House is the office drawing the map.
I already named the larger design. IMEC is not only a trade deal. It is a public-private corridor meant to dominate world trade, with Gaza held up as the model of a technocratic state on the Mediterranean end, next to Haifa. Hormuz is the eastern choke point of the same system. Don’t think these are separate stories. They are not.
Watch Oman. Watch the Corridor.
I have said for years that Technocracy does not need a revolution. It needs infrastructure. Build the route. Hold the choke point. Manage the flow. Consent is not required.
IMEC is being built. The war was the clearing operation. The blockade is the pressure. The territory talk is the claim.
Watch Oman in the next few weeks. A longtime American partner is being threatened with bombs while it talks to Tehran about a transit route. Watch the corridor. Watch the map. Watch what they do, not what they say.
As I said above, if you cannot connect the dots, you will stay in the fog. If you can, you are not helpless. Americans saw through this kind of scheme before. They can do it again. Indeed, they must.
References
- Patrick Wood, “IMEC: Trump’s War With Iran Is About Global Trade,” Technocracy.News, March 18, 2026. https://www.technocracy.news/imec-trumps-war-with-iran-is-about-global-trade/
- Patrick Wood, “Is War With Iran About Nuclear Stockpile Or Controlling the Strait of Hormuz?,” Technocracy.News, April 23, 2026. https://www.technocracy.news/is-war-with-iran-about-nuclear-stockpile-or-controlling-the-strait-of-hormuz/
- Patrick M. Wood, The New Economics of Technocracy (Coherent Publishing, 2026), Chapter 9, “The Gulf Corridor – Part II.” Hormuz as IMEC choke point; Iran as spoiler; Oman ports Duqm, Salalah, and Sohar as the bypass; Operation Epic Fury, February 28, 2026.
- NOTUS, “Trump: I Plan to Declare the Strait of Hormuz a ‘Territory’ of the U.S.,” August 14, 2026. Garden City / Blakeman / law-enforcement crowd; clean territory quote. https://www.notus.org/donald-trump/strait-of-hormuz-us-territory
- Al Jazeera, “Trump threatens to make the Strait of Hormuz a US territory. Can he?,” August 16, 2026. “Pretty soon” and blockade follow-on; Fein (treaty or statute); Gharibabadi; U.S. and Iran both not parties to UNCLOS. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2026/8/16/trump-threatens-to-make-the-strait-of-hormuz-a-us-territory-can-he
- USA Today, “Trump says he will soon declare the Strait of Hormuz a US territory,” August 14, 2026. Same fuller Garden City clauses; Hegseth “indefinitely,” August 13. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2026/08/14/trump-straight-of-hormuz-territory-iran-war/91310185007/
- NBC News, “Trump threatens to bomb Oman if it ‘gets in the way’ of Strait of Hormuz talks with Iran,” August 17, 2026. Yingst line (no audio); Oval Office “total control” claim; Kaine war-powers resolution. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/trump-administration/trump-bomb-oman-iran-strait-hormuz-rcna592971
- Associated Press, “Trump threatens Oman as it works on Strait of Hormuz deal with Iran,” August 17, 2026. Baghaei transit-route line; May “blow them up.” https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-israel-lebanon-gaza-hormuz-august-17-2026-53ae10812e472a4e5bb228b9f318a5fc
- BBC News, “Trump threatens to bomb US ally Oman if it ‘gets in the way’ over Iran deal.” MoU signed June 18 / expired August 17; Trump told BBC he was not extending; IRGC denial via Tasnim. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy5dzk0ryzdo
- CNBC, “Trump says no talks with Iran, teases Hormuz as U.S. territory,” August 18, 2026. Truth Social “New U.S. Territory” map; “no talks… scheduled”; blockade “in full force”; mines claim; CENTCOM would not confirm; UKMTO cargo-ship hit. https://www.cnbc.com/2026/08/18/us-iran-war-trump-hormuz-trump-ceasefire-expires-extension-.html
- NBC News, “Iran rejects ‘delusions’ after Trump says he wants the Strait of Hormuz to be a U.S. territory,” August 15, 2026. https://www.nbcnews.com/world/iran/iran-rejects-delusions-trump-strait-hormuz-us-territory-rcna592666
- U.S. Energy Information Administration, Short-Term Energy Outlook / Global Energy Security Data, August 12, 2026. Hormuz about 21 million barrels a day in 2025, 4.9 million in Q2 2026. https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/report/energysecurity/article.php