Trump news at a glance: president celebrates strait of Hormuz reopening, though Iran officials warn they could close it again | Trump administration
Iran’s foreign minister said the Strait of Hormuz was now fully open to commercial shipping, boosting hopes of an eventual end to the Middle East war and sending oil prices tumbling.
In a flurry of social media posts, Donald Trump asserted Friday that Iran had agreed to never again close the strategic waterway, hailing “A GREAT, BRILLIANT DAY FOR THE WORLD!” »
However, Abbas Araghchi’s commitment received only lukewarm support from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which reinforced its already powerful authority in Tehran during the war.
The speaker of Iran’s parliament subsequently warned that his country would close the Strait of Hormuz again if the US blockade continued. The country’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi earlier announced that commercial shipping through the strait was now “fully open for the remaining period of the ceasefire”, prompting Trump to welcome the move, but also stressed that the US naval blockade against Iran would remain in place until the conflict is fully concluded.
Trump also said Iran had agreed to never close the strait again, but this has not been verified.
Iran says Strait of Hormuz ‘completely open’ to commercial ships as oil prices fall
Iranian state television quoted a senior military official as saying that commercial ships would be allowed to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, but only along a set route and with permission from the IRGC navy.
The U.S. blockade of Iranian ports and shipping will remain in place for now, Trump said, and few ships are likely to pass through the strait under such uncertain circumstances, meaning any return to normal is still far away.
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Decline in voter support for Israel shakes US consensus on military aid
Israeli conflicts in the Middle East have caused a sea change in American public opinion, threatening a bipartisan consensus of support for military aid to Israel that had been the status quo for decades.
In opinion polls of Americans, among potential presidential candidates, and even in pro-Israel lobbying circles, Israel’s special relationship with the United States is now under fire as human rights concerns emanating from the left and a new groundswell of “America First” foreign policy on the right could impact upcoming elections – including the 2028 presidential election.
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US Congress passes 10-day extension of surveillance law amid Republican infighting
Both chambers of Congress voted successively Friday to approve a brief 10-day extension of a controversial warrantless surveillance law, after Republican infighting scuttled plans for a much longer renewal of the law without any changes.
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Children are ‘low-hanging fruit’ in fight to end trans care, pro-Trump think tank official says
Children are the “low-hanging fruit” in a longer-term effort to end gender-affirming care for all Americans, an official at a Trump administration-aligned think tank said recently.
The medical transition bans represent only part of the broader, unprecedented attack on transgender rights mounted by a coordinated campaign of mostly conservative activists and policymakers in the United States in recent years.
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‘Popes Overexplain’ Vance in Debate on Whether Iran Is a Just War
Analysis: The contrast between the experiences of the two men who disagreed on war and theology was stark.
On one side was Pope Leo XIV, the first North American to head the Catholic Church and the first cleric of the Augustinian order, who this week visited the modern Algerian city where St. Augustine once lived. For Leo, who wrote his doctoral dissertation on Augustine’s ideas, it was the culmination of a lifelong intellectual interest.
On the other, the American vice-president, JD Vance, an adult very recently converted to Catholicism and without university training in the history of the thought of the Church.
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What else happened today:
A catch-up? Here’s what happened April 16, 2026.
