CNN anchor Manu Raju pointed out the abrupt 180 in the arguments President Donald Trump has deployed in response to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
In his Wednesday address to the nation, the president claimed that the U.S. is “totally independent” of Middle Eastern oil, arguing that he was fighting in the region on behalf of allies who need the oil.
“The United States imports almost no oil through the Hormuz Strait and won’t be taking any in the future,” he told Americans in his speech.
“We don’t have to be there. We don’t need their oil.”
In a stunning reversal, the president posted an expletive-laden tirade on Easter Sunday morning in which he threatened Iran if it did not reopen the strait by Tuesday.
“Tuesday will be Power Plant Day, and Bridge Day, all wrapped up in one, in Iran. There will be nothing like it!!!” Trump, 79, wrote.
“Open the F---in’ Strait, you crazy b-----ds, or you’ll be living in Hell - JUST WATCH!” He continued, adding, “Praise be to Allah.”
It was the latest in a series of ultimatums the president has directed at Iran in an attempt to force it to reopen the strait, which is a crucial shipping lane for the global oil trade. Its closure has sent oil and gas prices skyrocketing around the world, including in the U.S., where gas hit $4.11 on Sunday.
CNN’s Manu Raju drew attention to the contrast between the president’s comments on Wednesday and his post during the Sunday edition of Inside Politics with Manu Raju.
“I mean, so what is it, Zolan?” Raju asked The New York Times’ Zolan Kanno-Youngs. “Is that the objective now? Because he’s been saying, he said in a primetime address, ‘We don’t need it, we haven’t needed it, and we don’t need it.’ And now he’s saying, ‘Open it or there will be a living hell.’”
Posting the clip to X, Raju once again highlighted the 180-degree turn, writing, “Trump on Wednesday on Strait of Hormuz: ‘We don’t need it. We haven’t needed it.’ Trump today: ‘Open the f---in’ strait, you crazy b-----ds, or you’ll be living in hell.’
“The president has been issuing conflicting messages throughout this more than a month-long war, sometimes in the same sentence,” Kanno-Youngs told Raju.
“And now also you have this escalating language, which again is unusual even for Trump standards, right?” he added, referring to the president’s Truth Social post, which backfired spectacularly after it not just failed to calm the markets but sent oil prices to their highest point since June 2022.
The Daily Beast has contacted the White House for comment.
Iran responded to the president’s post by condemning his threats to attack civilian infrastructure, stressing that doing so would constitute a war crime, and asserting that the strait will remain closed until Iran is “fully compensated” for war damages.
Mehdi Tabatabaei, deputy for communications at the Iranian president’s office, also dismissed the president’s threats as a sign that the U.S. has “resorted to obscenities and nonsense out of sheer desperation and anger.” The country also threatened “devastating” retaliation if civilian targets are attacked.
In a post on Truth Social, the president seemed to give Iran a deadline of Tuesday, 8 p.m. Eastern time. Axios reported on Sunday night that the U.S., Iran, and a group of regional mediators are discussing the terms for a potential 45-day ceasefire, citing four U.S., Israeli, and regional sources familiar with the talks.
