President Trump pivoted from his Strait of Hormuz toll booth plan Tuesday, just one day after announcing plans to charge ships 20% of their cargo’s value for safe passage.
The president now says Persian Gulf nations will pay America another way.
“Based on highly productive conversations with Middle East Leadership, I have decided to replace the 20% United States Reimbursement Fee with Trade and Investment Deals that the various Gulf States will be making into the United States,” Trump wrote on TRUTH Social.
“Those Investments will be MASSIVE but, at the same time, extraordinarily good for them, and their future,” he added.
The pivot came one day after Trump declared the United States the “guardian” of the Strait of Hormuz and said Washington would collect reimbursement equal to 20% of cargo moving through the critical energy corridor.
A rough calculation cited by the New York Post estimated that the fee could have produced between $176 billion and $194 billion annually if fully collected.
The proposed toll reportedly caught Gulf governments by surprise. Officials from several countries contacted the White House seeking clarification, Axios reported.
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain had already committed more than $2 trillion in U.S. investments before Tuesday’s announcement, according to Axios. Trump said the upcoming deals would involve new investments that would push the total even higher.
And while the toll may be gone, the blockade is not.
Trump said the strait would remain open to vessels not involved in Iranian trade, while ships traveling to or from Iranian ports or carrying Iranian cargo would be blocked.
“We will therefore have a FULL Blockade, but only on Ships coming to and from Iranian ports, or carrying anything have to do with Iranian cargo,” Trump wrote.
He blamed Tehran for the restriction, saying the strait was open to all other ship traffic because Iran’s “lying, violent, malicious leadership” was taking the country toward “TOTAL DESTRUCTION.”
Trump also claimed that oil exports were “flowing like never before” following U.S. strikes against Iranian military targets.
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just announces the United States will be REIMBURSED by Middle Eastern nations not through a 20% toll on the Strait of Hormuz, but through MASSIVE investments into the USA from those countries
The blockade against Iran is officially STARTING 🔥
"I… pic.twitter.com/cegnV5ctib
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) July 14, 2026
