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TRUMP: ‘WE GAVE THEM A CHANCE’: On social media, at the White House, and in a series of interviews, an angry and frustrated President Donald Trump announced the war with Iran was back on, with the goal of taking full control of the Strait of Hormuz and charging a “reimbursement fee” on cargo that passes through the strait in return for “providing safety and security.”
“We are reinstating THE IRANIAN BLOCKADE,” Trump posted on Truth Social Monday morning, and declared “The U.S.A. will be, from this point forward, known as “THE GUARDIAN OF THE HORMUZ STRAIT.”
Trump said his patience with Iran was exhausted after what he claimed was an 11-hour negotiating session, which for the umpteenth time, he thought was ending with a deal.
“Everything’s 11 hours with these guys. You know, you can’t settle one sentence in one hour, in one minute. It should be one minute,” Trump said on Fox & Friends. “Everything was agreed to yesterday. And they leave the room and they call back and they say, ‘We had to make a couple of changes.’ I said, changes? They got to make changes? We’re not going to make changes.”
He later told Hugh Hewitt on his radio show: “We gave them a chance … I was at least reasonable.” “But I got to know them, and they’re stone cold crazy people.”
The U.S. Central Command says it bombed Iran for five hours last night, hitting targets across Iran including Bushehr, Chabahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa, and Bandar Abbas, with a focus on “coastal defense systems, missile and drone sites, and maritime capabilities.”
ONE DEAD AFTER IRAN ATTACKS TWO TANKERS IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ, UAE SAYS
WHO’S GONNA PAY? Trump is apparently ready to abandon the principle of “freedom of navigation” through what had been an international waterway before the war, with no tolls. While in his Truth Social post he alluded to a “reimbursement” on all cargo “at the rate of 20%,” when questioned during a White House event, he indicated he would be expecting Gulf allies to ante up.
“I want to be reimbursed because we’re protecting a very rich portion of the world we’re spending money,” Trump told reporters. “You look at the five countries you have: Saudi Arabia, you have UAE … you have Qatar, Bahrain, and by the way, you have others. You have Kuwait and you have others, and they will do very well.”
Trump said on Fox & Friends: “We’re going to keep the strait and we’ll probably run it. We’ll become the guardian of the strait. Maybe we’ll call it the guardian angel of the strait. And we should be reimbursed for that.”
Former national security official Brett McGurk said on CNN last night: “I think that statement is actually quite unfortunate. One thing that the U.S. is going for it here is the Gulf states are unanimous that they will not accept a tolling mechanism, which Iran is insisting on.
“Even Oman, which has been working with Iran on some of this, has been rejecting that. For us to now come in and say, actually, you’ll pay a fee to us, I think just kind of, forfeits a lot of legitimacy we have here.”
On X, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi trolled Trump, posting, “POTUS is absolutely right. Whoever provides secure and safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated for this service.”
“Iran has always been the GUARDIAN of the Strait and will remain so FOREVER,” Araghchi boasted, “20% is of course too much. We will be fair.”
TRUMP BEMOANS IRANIAN STALLING AFTER LENGTHY MEETING
PICKAXE MOUNTAIN ON THE TARGET LIST: In last summer’s Operation Midnight Hammer, U.S. B-2 stealth bombers hit three of four Iran nuclear sites. But a fourth one, Pickaxe Mountain, which is under construction, was spared, largely because it is not operational and was thought not to house any nuclear material or centrifuges.
“It is on the list. We’re watching it closely. We see no activity there,” Trump said on the Hugh Hewitt Show. “We’ll probably give Pickaxe a shot relatively soon.”
“Pickaxe Mountain is a deeply buried nuclear-related site under construction at the broadly defined Natanz enrichment site,” nuclear weapons expert David Albright posted on X, noting that the facility is under a granite mountain that is very difficult for even bunker-busting bombs to penetrate.
“Going through either solid mountain is not possible. Must look for vulnerabilities,” Albright, president and founder Institute for Science and International Security, said. “If nothing else, the U.S. could have attacked the entrances with Tomahawks like it did on the Esfahan complex tunnels and stopped ongoing construction.”
Trump said: “But Pickaxe is a possible, you know, possible target for a nice, big, fat shot right into the front door. And I think that you’ll, maybe you’ll see that.”
US STRIKES IRAN FOR THIRD CONSECUTIVE NIGHT AS WAR ESCALATES
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HAPPENING TODAY: GRAHAM’S SISTER SWORN IN: Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office has announced that Senator-Designate Darline Graham Nordone will be sworn in at 2:30 p.m. today.
Yesterday, South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster tapped the 62-year-old Nordone to fill her late brother’s seat until January. A special election will be held next month to pick a new Republican nominee in the general election.
GRAHAM’S DEATH RAISES QUESTIONS OVER GOP FOREIGN POLICY DIRECTION
TRUMP ‘RESETS’ WAR POWERS CLOCK: It turns out, according to Trump, the second Iran war of 2026 started last Friday, when Trump sent a formal notification to Congress, in accordance with the War Powers Resolution of 1973, stating the U.S. has resumed military action against Iran.
“As previously communicated to the Congress, I ordered a 2-week ceasefire on April 7, 2026. The ceasefire was then extended,” Trump wrote in the two-page letter. “During the ceasefire, my Administration engaged in productive, good-faith efforts to achieve a diplomatic solution to Iran’s malign behavior and to end its threat to the United States and our allies and partners.”
“Despite this commitment, Iran again attacked several neutral-flagged commercial vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz between July 6-7, 2026. At my direction, United States Armed Forces responded, commencing on July 7, 2026, with defensive strikes against targets within Iran.
Trump, who has said he considers the Vietnam War-era resolution unconstitutional and therefore non-binding, nevertheless says the notification resets the 60-day window during which he can act without the consent of Congress.
“This is not how it works. The War Powers Resolution doesn’t give the president a ‘free’ 60 days — and the Constitution certainly doesn’t either,” former Rep. Justin Amash (D-MI) posted on X. “Regardless, we’re talking about a single war. You don’t get to pause it and then pretend it’s a different war.”
IRAN SHIPPED $6 BILLION WORTH OF OIL PRODUCTS BEFORE US BLOCKADE WAS REINSTATED
TRUMP: MOU WAS JUST A TEST: Trump says the now defunct Memorandum of Understanding, that he touted as ending the war with Iran and setting the stage for serious nuclear negotiations, was only a test.
“It was built to test. It was a test. Trump told Hugh Hewitt, insisting “we didn’t know,” if it would amount to anything. “It didn’t,” he said.
“Look, a memorandum of understanding, when you’re dealing with sleazebags, don’t mean much,” Trump said, “And they don’t mean much when you’re dealing with
