Trump says he’s considering ‘joint venture’ with Iran for Strait of Hormuz tolls

President Trump on Wednesday said he is considering the formation of a “joint venture” with Iran to set up tolls in the Strait of Hormuz after the Trump administration and Tehran agreed to a two-week ceasefire deal.

ABC News’s Jonathan Karl asked Trump if he approved of Iran’s plan to charge vessels a fee for passing through the strait — a key channel through which roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil is transported.

“We’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture,” the president told Karl, who shared Trump’s response on the social platform X. “It’s a way of securing it — also securing it from lots of other people. It’s a beautiful thing.”

Any “joint venture” was not part of Iran’s 10-point peace plan that the U.S. agreed to and the president previously called “workable.”

Earlier Wednesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social that there was “big money” to be made by the U.S. aiding in the “traffic buildup” in the Strait of Hormuz.

“We’ll be loading up with supplies of all kinds, and just ‘hangin’ around’ in order to make sure that everything goes well,” he wrote. “I feel confident that it will.”

The president also suggested Monday that the U.S. could impose its own tolls on vessels trying to transit through the channel. Leaders in Tehran signaled last week it would install a “toll booth” system to exert a price on ships seeking safe passage through the strait.

The Islamic Republic’s previous proposal to toll vessels drew criticism from Secretary of State Marco Rubio. He blasted the potential “tolling system” as “illegal” and “dangerous for the world,” adding that the U.S. and European partners would have to have a plan to address that possibility. Rubio noted, however, that the U.S. would not lead that plan.

Funds raised by Iran’s toll system will go toward reconstructing the country, a regional officer told The Associated Press. Some of the accumulated fees would also be presented to Oman, though how the nation would use them is unclear.

Trump and members of his Cabinet praised the deal as a victory for the U.S. Vice President Vance called the ceasefire a “fragile truce” and warned that if Iran were to “lie, if they’re going to cheat, if they’re going to try to prevent even the fragile truce that we’ve set up from taking place, then they’re not going to be happy.”

The U.S. and Iran reached the deal with a few hours to spare before Trump’s 8 p.m. EDT deadline on Tuesday. He had threatened that if Iran did not shape up a deal and reopen the strait, Iran’s “whole civilization will die tonight.”

Members of Congress were outraged by Trump’s threat. They slammed the president and fumed over a potential impending war crime. Many called for his removal from office through the 25th Amendment, and Connecticut Rep. John Larson (D) filed articles of impeachment against him over the threat.

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