Trump says Strait of Hormuz will be renamed as US territory

Donald Trump has said the Strait of Hormuz will soon be "called a territory of the United States", according to the Independent. The claim came in remarks about Iran and what he would do after he "defeats" the country.

The Strait is the narrow passage between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, through which a fifth of the world's oil supply moves. It has never been US territory - it's bounded by Iran to the north and Oman and the UAE to the south. No state owns a strait under international law; the waters are governed by the law of the sea, which guarantees transit passage.

The remark sits in a longer pattern of territorial renaming in Trump's rhetoric - Denali reverted to McKinley, the Gulf of Mexico became the Gulf of America by executive flourish. But renaming a waterway you don't control, between countries you don't govern, in defiance of treaty law, is a different category of claim. It isn't clear whether it's a negotiating position, a statement of intent, or simply a line for applause.

What to watch: whether any part of the US military or State Department repeats the claim, and whether Iran or the Gulf states respond. The Strait's status is settled in law; unsettling it would require rather more than a speech.