President Donald Trump speaks to the media after disembarking from Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, on April 12, 2026. | Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images This story appeared in The Logoff, a daily newsletter that helps you stay informed about the Trump administration without letting political news take over your life. Subscribe here. Welcome to The Logoff: After the US and Iran failed to reach a longer-term peace agreement over the weekend, President Donald Trump is trying something new: blockading the Strait of Hormuz. How does that work? Iran already closed the Strait, a crucial passage for oil and natural gas, to most foreign traffic shortly after the US-Iran war began. Now, Trump’s blockade will also stymie traffic to Iranian ports and limit Iran’s ability to sell its own oil, further disrupting the global market. CENTCOM, the US military command covering the Middle East, has said that the blockade does not extend to ships “transiting the Strait of Hormuz to and from non-Iranian ports” — but given the Strait’s ongoing closure, it’s unlikely much other traffic will resume unless Iran wants it to. What is Trump trying to accomplish? Trump still wants the Strait of Hormuz fully reopened, which last week’s…
The new Hormuz blockade, briefly explained
