Trump Threatens Extended Iran Blockade, Warns Leaders | Times of Israel

US President Donald Trump warned Iran on April 29, 2026, to get smart soon and negotiate a deal to end the current war and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. The warning coincided with claims from the US president that the Iranian economy is collapsing financially due to a US-led blockade of the vital waterway.

In a series of posts on Truth Social, Trump asserted that the Islamic Republic is starving for cash and that members of the Iranian military and police have complained about not receiving payment. He characterized the financial state of the regime with the exclamation SOS!!!

Financial Pressure and the Strait of Hormuz

Trump claimed that Iran is losing 500 million dollars per day because the US closure of the Strait of Hormuz prevents Tehran from taxing ships passing through the waterway. He stated that the Iranian government wants the strait reopened specifically so they can resume collecting those daily payments.

The US president indicated that the blockade is being utilized as primary leverage in negotiations. Trump suggested that a deal would be impossible without extreme measures, writing:

There can never be a Deal with Iran, unless we blow up the rest of their country, their leaders included!

Donald Trump via Truth Social

The current maritime tension follows a complex series of ceasefire attempts. Trump announced on April 29, 2026, that he was indefinitely extending a two-week ceasefire with Iran. This ceasefire had originally been conditioned on Iran lifting its own blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.

While Iran briefly lifted its blockade following a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, it reversed that decision after the US announced it would maintain a blockade on Iran-linked shipping, a measure imposed on April 13, 2026.

Military Escalation and Regional Threats

Despite the extension of the ceasefire, military tensions remain high. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) attacked three ships in the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway currently subject to blockades by both Washington and Tehran.

In response to the US intercepting its ships, a senior Iranian lawmaker issued a threat on behalf of the regime. The lawmaker warned that Iran may direct its Houthi allies in Yemen to disrupt the Bab el-Mandeb strait, another critical chokepoint for Middle Eastern energy supplies.

US Congressional Oversight

On April 29, 2026, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared before Congress to testify for the first time since the Trump administration began a joint war with Israel against Iran.

During the proceedings, Democratic lawmakers accused the White House of entering a war that was unnecessary and conducted without the required congressional approval.

Humanitarian Crisis in Lebanon

As the broader conflict continues, a UN-backed report released on April 29, 2026, warned of a severe food crisis in Lebanon resulting from the war between Israel and Hezbollah.

The report, a joint statement from Lebanon’s agriculture ministry, the World Food Program and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, stated that 1.24 million people in Lebanon are expected to face food insecurity at crisis levels or worse between April and August 2026.

This figure represents nearly one in four of the analyzed population. The data, provided by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC), indicates a significant deterioration from the period before the war began in March 2026, when an estimated 874,000 people, or roughly 17 percent of the population, experienced acute food insecurity.

The joint statement attributed the rise in hunger to economic pressures, displacement, and the ongoing conflict.