{"id":47574,"date":"2026-04-08T12:18:58","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:18:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=47574"},"modified":"2026-04-08T12:18:59","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T19:18:59","slug":"trump-the-pirate-of-hormuz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2026\/04\/08\/trump-the-pirate-of-hormuz\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump, the Pirate of Hormuz"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Trump, the Pirate of Hormuz<\/td><\/tr>
by\u00a0Greg Palast\u00a0<\/a> April 7, 2026<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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It was a mere 500 years ago that Europeans realized that the Strait of Hormuz was a trade choke point, when Portuguese Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque seized the Island of Hormuz to control trade in and out of the Persian Gulf. It was the first armed European conquest of Arabia meant to control international water routes and trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, Trump and Hegseth didn\u2019t know the importance of securing the Strait, although every ship captain has known about this chokepoint for centuries. Oh, well. As the philosopher George Santayana once said, \u201cThose who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it, or at the least get their asses kicked and watch gasoline prices go through the roof.\u201d I\u2019m not sure about the authenticity of the last phrase, but you get the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The British, who are pretty good at the imperial power thing, grabbed Hormuz in 1622 from the Portuguese, with Iran\u2019s help. Empires knew about Hormuz without the help of Google Maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Somehow, Hormuz\u2019 strategic stranglehold on shipping seems to have slid by unnoticed by Trump\u2019s trillion-dollar defense\/intelligence combine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, as Civil War journalist Ambrose Bierce said, \u201cWar is God\u2019s way of teaching Americans geography.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now that Trump has learned the hard way about the Hormuz choke point, he\u2019s suggesting he might turn it into a profit center. He has suggested that an end to the war might include Iran and the US sharing the power to charge tolls to pass through the Strait (about $2 million per tanker!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is nothing new under the sun. Five centuries ago, the Portuguese conquistadors imposed a toll (\u201ccartaz\u201d) for ships trying to get through the Strait. Then, after the capture of Hormuz by the Shah of Iran and the mercenaries of the British East India Company, Persia and Britain agreed to split the loot from the cartaz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The wee problem with Trump\u2019s plan to collect passage tolls is that it violates international laws against piracy.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Above: The interior of the Portuguese castle on Hormuz, still standing today, a tourist attraction; though you may want to postpone that vacation to the Strait until the end of Operation Fast and Furious or whatever Agent Orange calls it.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1801, a \u201cnew nation conceived in liberty,\u201d the United States of America, declared all such tolls by trolls a crime against humanity. President Thomas Jefferson declared that henceforward, the US would be world\u2019s protector of open seas. And he meant business. Jefferson sent the US Marines into Libya to defeat the Barbary pirates who were exacting tolls from ships passing along Africa\u2019s Mediterranean coast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Few Americans today know about Jefferson\u2019s war against piracy. It survives mostly in the Marine Anthem, \u201cFrom the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli,\u201d the pirates\u2019 capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But now, Donald \u201cBluebeard\u201d Trump wants in on the extortion racket. When asked who would operate this new toll booth in the Gulf, Trump said, \u201cMaybe me. Me and the Ayatollah, whoever the Ayatollah is, whoever the next Ayatollah.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How interesting: Trump recently called Iran\u2019s Ayatollahs \u201cderanged scumbags\u201d and \u201clunatics\u201d \u2014 which, apparently, he thinks qualifies them as perfect business partners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, in the end, the ultimate goal of Trump\u2019s war is not to end the Iranian regime\u2019s murderous rule, but to go into business with them to shake down the planet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bluebeard Trump\u2019s only remaining problem is that the parrot on his shoulder keeps saying, \u201cThat one\u2019s hot, Jeffrey.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My final concern: Trump\u2019s latest post on Truth Social ordered the Ayatollahs to, \u201cOpen the Fuckin\u2019 Strait, you crazy bastards,\u201d his affectionate way of speaking to his would-be partners. Given that Trump renamed the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America, are we now going to have to change our maps to replace, \u201cStrait of Hormuz\u201d with \u201cFuckin\u2019 Strait\u201d?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trump, the Pirate of Hormuz by\u00a0Greg Palast\u00a0 April 7, 2026 It was a mere 500 years ago that Europeans realized that the Strait of Hormuz was a trade choke point, when Portuguese Admiral Afonso de Albuquerque seized the Island of Hormuz to control trade in and out of the Persian… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47574"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47574"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47574\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47578,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47574\/revisions\/47578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}