By Tolga Sahin | Staff Writer
The U.S. Navy enforced a blockade on Iran’s passage through the Strait of Hormuz, and the effects rippled all the way to Waco, further driving record-high gas prices.
The Iran war is now in its 46th day. Iran responded by restricting access to Hormuz, which carries about a fifth of the world’s seaborne oil, and moving to toll vessels transiting the strait. Waco drivers are already feeling it. The local average hit $3.38 a gallon last week, up 21 cents in seven days and 75 cents year-over-year, according to AAA data.
Dr. Richard Jordan, undergraduate program director for the political science department, said those gas prices carry political weight heading into the November midterms.
“Trump is coming under considerable fire from fellow Republicans to relieve the pressure on gas prices,” Jordan said. “That’s going to affect midterm outcomes in a way that’s going to hurt the Republican Party.”
President Donald Trump announced the blockade operation Sunday on Truth Social, saying the Navy would begin intercepting vessels immediately and would hunt down any ship that had paid Iran to transit the Strait of Hormuz.
“Effective immediately, the United States Navy, the Finest in the World, will begin the process of BLOCKADING any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump wrote.
Joanne Cummings, lecturer in the political science department and a former U.S. diplomat, said the strait holds a special status under maritime law.
“The Strait of Hormuz is something called an international strait,” Cummings said. “Passage is not supposed to be restricted in any way for civilian vessels.”
The announcement followed the collapse of direct negotiations in Pakistan led by Vice President JD Vance, who told reporters Saturday that the talks were over.
“The Iranians have chosen not to accept our terms,” Vance said.
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps called the blockade “piracy” and warned that any military vessel approaching Hormuz would be treated as a ceasefire violation, according to Iran’s Fars News. A senior Iranian lawmaker, Ebrahim Rezaei, dismissed the move as a bluff on X.
“Such a move would be considered an act of war, and we would respond,” Rezaei wrote.
Trump’s claim that allies would assist has not held up so far. The U.K. will not participate and is instead leading a 40-nation coalition with France aimed at reopening the strait through freedom-of-navigation operations. Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government received no request, and Spain’s defense minister called the plan “senseless.”
European reluctance stems from how the conflict began, Cummings said.
“One of the reasons European countries are not responding to President Trump’s call to come and open the Strait of Hormuz is that they feel he’s the reason it’s closed,” Cummings said.
Trump escalated the rhetoric further in a follow-up post, stating that the U.S. military is “LOCKED AND LOADED” to “finish up the little that is left of Iran.” Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad-Bagher Ghalibaf replied on X with a photo of gas prices near the White House.
“Enjoy the current pump figures,” Ghalibaf wrote. “Soon you’ll be nostalgic for $4-5 gas.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron are convening at a leaders’ summit this week to push for reopening the strait, Starmer told the House of Commons on Monday.
“I will convene a summit of leaders this week to drive forward the international effort,” Starmer said, adding that the waterway must reopen with “no conditions” and “no tolls.”
