Trump says U.S. helped move millions of barrels of oil through Strait of Hormuz

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, President Donald Trump said that the U.S. had carried out operations to transfer "millions" of barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz. He claimed that the leadership in Tehran was not aware of the operation, and that 22 ships carrying millions of barrels had safely made their way out of the militarized passage. "Nobody knows it. You know who doesn't know about it? Iran — until right now," he said.

"We took out, the other night, 22 ships, late at night with no lights because they do not have any radar, cause we blasted the c**p out of them. This way, oil is $85 a barrel," Trump asserted. In a later post on Truth Social, the President claimed that he had directed the military to carry out a "secret mission to support Oil Tankers and other Commercial Ships through the Strait of Hormuz" last month. "Today, I am pleased to announce that this effort has resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Strait, and into the Open Market. More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait," he added.

However, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said during a congressional hearing that he was not aware of any such operations. When pressed on the matter by Rep. Emilia Sykes, he denied having any knowledge of it. "I'm unaware," he said. However, when asked if he thought Trump was lying, Wright said no. "I do not think the President is lying. I think the President is talking casually about our efforts to stop the flow of Iranian oil."

Rep. Sykes said that it was not "appropriate" to speak about the Middle East conflict casually, as 13 American service members had lost their lives. Wright was also questioned by Rep. Suhas Subramanyam about a tweet he had made in March that the U.S. Navy had escorted an oil tanker through the Strait. "No. That was an error. It was not tweeted by me, but by my team, who misunderstood something I said," he said.

Wright, however, said that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was increasing "meaningfully." When pressed on what "meaningfully" meant, the Energy Secretary said that he could not disclose those details. As far as the situation in Iran is concerned, hostilities between Tehran and Washington seem to be back on. The two sides have conducted strikes on each other's military assets, and now, President Trump has confirmed that more strikes are to follow.

"We hit them hard yesterday, and we're going to hit them again hard today," he said. "And we'll see what happens with the deal. We were really close to a deal — but they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers because you know what? They dealt with some very stupid Presidents."