Trump calls Strait of Hormuz blockade ‘history’s greatest’

President Trump on Sunday called the U.S. naval blockade in the Strait of Hormuz “history’s greatest” as he mulls further strikes after the midterms.

“Task Force Iron Gate is in full force and effect in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Trump wrote on Truth Social , referring to the recently formed 20-member staff formed by U.S. Central Command (Centcom) Adm. Brad Cooper and tasked with “preventing the movement of advanced weapons systems, dual-use technologies, sanctioned materials, and illegal revenue streams across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea.”

Trump said that coupled “with history’s greatest Naval Blockade, very little gets into, or out of, Iran!”

The Iran war has remained at a standstill for months and has been largely unpopular among the American public. Trump and other administration officials, including Vice President Vance, have acknowledged that the conflict likely contributed to sweeping Republican losses in the 2026 midterm elections last Tuesday.

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi gave the U.S. an ultimatum after Tehran submitted a 2-day proposal to end the conflict or “choose war, and see our alert and battle-hardened Warriors rain down hell.”

The U.S. reportedly launched new defensive strikes against Iran over the weekend that targeted the country’s air defense systems.

Mediators, led by Qatar, have called on Washington and Tehran to reach an agreement to end the conflict. But Trump has left open the possibility of resuming strikes, though he said Sunday that it was “ highly unlikely ” he would do so if upcoming peace talks show progress.

“I would if necessary, but we hit them really hard,” Trump told CNN’s Jim Sciutto. “I hit them so hard. You don’t know how hard I hit them. So it’s highly unlikely I’ll have to. They’re withering away financially. We’ve hit them militarily. We could finish them off.”

The weekend strikes followed up on alleged attacks on Nov. 2 that struck Iran’s Qeshm Island, home to an Iranian naval base and located in the critical Strait of Hormuz. The strikes ahead of the midterms were not publicly acknowledged by the Pentagon, which had not disclosed any attacks on Iranian targets since early September.

Trump previously determined that he would not launch strikes on Iran until after the midterms.

The president said that “a lot of people didn’t like” Vance’s remarks on social media saying that Republicans lost because of the Iran war.

“He should have made one other statement,” Trump told reporters on Sunday. “One statement that I think is very important. If you had it to do again? Would you do it again? The answer is yes. I can tell you, if I had it to do again, this historically, for history, will go down as one of the best things we ever did.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who, like Vance, is a potential 2028 Republican presidential primary contender, also acknowledged that the war was not “necessarily popular but necessary.”