{"id":12553,"date":"2026-05-05T11:12:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/05\/opinion-trumps-new-humanitarian-strait-of-hormuz-operation-is-a-ruse-ms-now\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T11:12:44","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T11:12:44","slug":"opinion-trumps-new-humanitarian-strait-of-hormuz-operation-is-a-ruse-ms-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/2026\/05\/05\/opinion-trumps-new-humanitarian-strait-of-hormuz-operation-is-a-ruse-ms-now\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion | Trump’s new ‘humanitarian’ Strait of Hormuz operation is a ruse – MS NOW"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Donald Trump announced on Sunday the launch of what he called \u201cProject Freedom,\u201d an effort to use the U.S. military\u00a0 to help \u201cguide\u201d ships that have been left stranded in the Strait of Hormuz<\/a> by Iran\u2019s effective closure of the waterway.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But, typical of Trump\u2019s policy rollouts, this operation has been so slapdash that it has been difficult to assess whether the plan\u2019s flaws are a sign of incompetence or darker motives. Either way, Iran\u2019s attempted attacks on<\/a> U.S. forces and merchant ships Monday were an immediate sign that Trump\u2019s new plan could unravel the ceasefire and set the war in motion again.<\/p>\n

Trump described<\/a> his ship-guiding operation for vessels stuck in the Strait of Hormuz as a \u201chumanitarian gesture\u201d so that they can \u201cfreely and ably get on with their business.\u201d He also warned that any \u201cinterference\u201d would \u201chave to be dealt with forcefully.\u201d This is no small task. According to U.S. Central Command<\/a>, the operation will involve the use of destroyers, more than\u00a0 100 aircraft and about 15,000 service members.<\/p>\n

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\u201cProject Freedom\u201d could be seen as a way for the U.S. to try to build up a greater presence around the strait.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Iran responded by saying<\/a> it would not allow U.S. forces or commercial ships to pass through the strait without its authorization, and Ali Abdollahi, an Iranian military commander, called for<\/a> \u201call commercial ships and oil tankers to refrain from any attempt to transit without coordination with the armed forces.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iran tried to make good on that threat on Monday \u2014 the first day of Trump\u2019s operation. According to CENTCOM<\/a>, after U.S. destroyers passed through the strait with commercial ships following behind them, Iran fired cruise missiles and launched drone attacks against them. The missiles and drones were intercepted and did not land hits. Six Iranian fastboats were also sent after the commercial ships but were destroyed by U.S. forces, according to CENTCOM. The Washington Post<\/a> reported that Adm. Brad Cooper, head of CENTCOM, \u201cwould not say whether the exchange of strikes meant the ceasefire was over.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

One can already see why Trump\u2019s \u201chumanitarian\u201d operation will likely fail. In order for an estimated 2,000 stuck ships<\/a>, which represent over 80 countries in total<\/a>, to feel safe leaving the Persian Gulf, their crews would need to hear from more than just one party<\/em> of the conflict that it\u2019s OK to pass through. If they don\u2019t hear that from both<\/em> parties, then they risk being caught in the crossfire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Already, maritime trade organizations have pointed out<\/a> that they have scant details to assess the safety of trying to pass through the strait. Some oil tanker captains have reported that their companies continue to believe<\/a> the strait is too dangerous to pass through. Hapag-Lloyd, a large container shipping company with many ships stuck in the Persian Gulf, said<\/a> its \u201crisk assessment is unchanged.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Oil prices initially fell<\/a> after Trump\u2019s announcement, but they surged again<\/a> after Monday\u2019s outbreak of violence, a sign of quickly declining public faith in the operation.<\/p>\n

\u201cProject Freedom\u201d could be seen as the Trump administration\u2019s desperate bid to find a winning narrative about a war that has spiraled out of its control. In this scenario, we can imagine the administration\u00a0coming\u00a0up with the idea of a so-called humanitarian mission to sound productive and authoritative and to give Trump a sense of movement as a negotiated end to the conflict remains out of reach.<\/a> It also functions as a (short-sighted) tactic to try to bring down global oil prices by suggesting that maritime trade in the region could start back up.<\/p>\n

At the same time, \u201cProject Freedom\u201d could be seen as a a way for the United States to try to build up a greater presence around the strait and to shift power dynamics in the waterway in its favor. As naval experts have observed<\/a>, the U.S. doesn\u2019t have the assets in the region to provide full-fledged conventional military escorts to the many ships in the area. Thus, U.S. forces may, in reality, be using ship-guiding as a cover for testing Iran\u2019s limits and trying to see how much, if any, of the waterway it can claim for itself under the auspices of a \u201chumanitarian\u201d operation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The issue with that strategy, of course, is that it dramatically increases the likelihood of confrontation with Iran, which sees its control of the strait as its trump card against the U.S. In other words, Trump\u2019s new plan seems to be\u00a0a recipe for undoing the fragile peace he has formed with Iran. In his mission to find a leg up on the country, Trump may be digging himself further into a hole.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\tZeeshan Aleem is a writer and editor for MS NOW. He primarily writes about politics and foreign policy.\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

May. 5, 2026, 6:00 AM EDT President Donald Trump announced on Sunday the launch of what he called \u201cProject Freedom,\u201d an effort to use the U.S. military\u00a0 to help \u201cguide\u201d ships that have been left stranded in the Strait of Hormuz by Iran\u2019s effective closure of the waterway.\u00a0 But, typical of Trump\u2019s policy rollouts, this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12554,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12553","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12553","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12553"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12553\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12553"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12553"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wpinitiate.com\/echo-test\/demo973e36f5\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12553"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}