Trump Instructs Aides to Prepare for Extended Hormuz Blockade Against Iran

Analysis
Per a single WSJ exclusive without corroboration, Trump has ordered aides to prepare for a sustained Hormuz blockade to force a 20-year Iranian enrichment suspension, an escalation from early-April warnings against transit fees that narrows the gap between diplomatic protest and operational planning. Actual closure within the next 90 days is very unlikely: force-posture changes, alliance cost absorption, and disruption to roughly a fifth of global seaborne oil exports impose barriers the preparation order does not clear. Iran's Kharg Island storage constraints already tighten the economic vice without blockade costs. The preparation more likely reflects coercive signaling calibrated to active nuclear diplomacy, with the 20-year suspension demand as an opening bid rather than an operational threshold.