Rubbish Check
Guardian US · 14 August 2026
source“Trump threatens to declare strait of Hormuz ‘territory of the United States’”
R2/ 10
Lightly altered
Rubbish Rating — 1 = base fact, 10 = pure rubbish
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In short
Rubbish Talk rates the Guardian's headline that Trump "threatens to declare strait of Hormuz 'territory of the United States'" a 2/10 because the quote in the headline is a near-verbatim lift of what Trump actually said at the Long Island speech, not an embellishment by the paper.
The Verdict
Lightly altered. This is about as close to base fact as a headline gets: "After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated, pretty soon I'll be declaring the Hormuz strait a territory of the United States," Trump said on Friday. The only thing missing from the headline is the article's own caveat that nobody, including the Guardian, is sure the remark is a real policy shift rather than a boast.
What actually happened
Speaking at a police academy on Long Island, Trump said he would soon designate the strait of Hormuz a US territory, tying the claim to Washington's naval blockade of Iranian shipping during an ongoing war. Iran's deputy foreign minister rejected the claim on X, and the Guardian notes the strait remains an internationally navigable waterway bordered by Iran and Oman, not the US.
Key facts
- Trump said he would "pretty soon" designate the waterway, a chokepoint through which about a fifth of the world's seaborne oil supplies typically pass, a US territory.
- The strait "has been all but closed since the US and Israel launched their war on Iran in February," roughly six months before the speech.
- Trump's exact words: "Essentially, that's what it is. We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to."
- "The seriousness of Trump's remark, and whether it signaled a new policy position for his administration, was not immediately clear."
- Iran's deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi said Tehran would not be intimidated and that the strait "would only be opened, or closed, under Iran's authority."
- Earlier the same week, Trump claimed the US had "total control" over the strait, despite it being "an internationally navigable strait bordered by Iran and Oman."
What to watch for
Watch whether the White House walks the comment back or codifies it as policy; a formal territorial claim over an international strait would be a major escalation the Guardian correctly flags as unresolved. Also watch domestic fuel prices, which the article notes have already risen, as a barometer of how sustainable Trump's rhetoric is politically.
About this scoreThe R-Score is Rubbish Talk's editorial opinion on how far a headline's framing sits from what the underlying facts support. It is a judgement about presentation and emphasis, not an allegation that any outlet has acted dishonestly. Every figure we rely on is linked under Receipts so you can check it yourself.
