Traffic through the Strait of Hormuz shipping route is at its lowest level in months, even as Donald Trump desperately tries to claim otherwise.
Data from analytics firm Kpler, reviewed by Reuters, found that an average of 10 commodity ships were moving through the vital shipping lane per day over the past 10 days, the lowest rate since May.
The 10-day moving average was down from more than 15 on Friday and nearly 13 on Saturday, as the U.S. and Iran resumed tit-for-tat attacks in a conflict that has continued for more than six months.
On Saturday, U.S. forces said they had struck vessels, including one off Kharg Island—the Iranian oil export hub that handled around 90 percent of the country’s oil exports before the war broke out—after Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps attacked U.S. warships in the region.
As the fighting resumed, just two vessels passed through the Strait of Hormuz, with only six moving through on Sunday.
The worrying drop in the number of ships passing through the narrow passage, through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply passed before the war began on Feb. 28, came as the 80-year-old president insisted that the “Strait is open.”
Speaking to reporters on Aug. 27, after signing an executive order to rename Lake Ontario as “Lake America,” Trump bragged that the U.S. was in control of the Strait of Hormuz because 24 boats had managed to pass through it.
“We have control and we have the blockade. Iran’s not getting anything; nothing is going through, not one ship has gotten through,” Trump said.
“The Strait is open; we’re taking a lot of boats—millions and millions of barrels of oil are coming out of the Strait every day. Other countries recognize that,” he added.
The president has been so confident that the U.S. is in control of the shipping route that he has suggested the unwise decision of trying to rename it the “Trump Strait.”
Despite the president’s claims, the Middle East conflict is still having disastrous effects on the world’s gas and energy supply.
On Friday, the average cost of a gallon of diesel reached an all-time high of $5.85, according to the American Automobile Association, breaking the previous record set in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Trump’s second term has also been plagued by rising gas prices across the U.S. as a result of the Iran war, further exacerbating the financial hardships of tens of millions of Americans.
The current national average is $4.15, already slightly above the record-high gas price ever recorded by AAA for Labor Day weekend.
The Daily Beast has approached the White House for comment.
