Mr Donald Trump, the Strait of Hormuz was open and toll-free before you started the war against Iran, so what victory exactly are you celebrating?

The US government has announced the successful agreement with Iran on a peace deal, with the usual dose of self-praise and bravado by Donald Trump. The White House posted the announcement by Trump, declaring “The deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all”. His post on Truth Social was the usual style, full of bravado and self-glorification bordering on narcissism that the world is used to by now.  Trump’s post on Truth Social “The deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all. I hereby fully authorize the toll-free opening of the Strait of Hormuz, and simultaneously herewith, authorize the immediate removal of the United States Naval blockade. Ships of the world, start your engines. Let the oil flow.” Trump’s statement reads as if the Strait of Hormuz was closed by some evil powers who were demanding a heavy, impossible toll, and the US President sent his Navy to defeat the evil powers and open the Strait, going to war for the global good like a fairy tale king. For a person who has observed the developments of the conflict carefully, this alsmost reads like a crass joke. Who is he congratulating? What victory is he so happy about? Because, in his desperation to post anything tha looked like winning, Trump seems to have forgotten an important fact. The Strait was already open, peaceful, functional and toll-free before the war was started by the US and Israeli forces against Iran. That truth is stark and known, regardless of what Trump posts on his personal social media, ironically named ’Truth Social’. The Strait was open, peaceful, and was handling 25% of the Global oil and LNG trade before Trump started bombing Iran on February 28. Iran had only closed and mined it ‘in response’ to U.S. and Israeli strikes. The “crisis” that Trump is claiming to have solved is one HE created.  What was the point of this war? Before the war endangered commercial shipping in the world’s most energy-focused trade route, tankers moved smoothly through the Strait with no tolls imposed on routine traffic. After the U.S. and Israel started bombing, Iran retaliated by shutting it down, attacking vessels, and the U.S. imposed its own blockade. That ‘blockade’ itself was a joke. US was effectively countering an alleged blockade by claiming to be blockading the hell out of the blockade that was never blockaded in the first place before they came to bomb Iran.  Oil and gas prices spiked, global supplies through the entire route were disrupted through the Gulf to India, Singapore, Thailand, China, Japan and beyond. Now the deal claims to restore pre-war conditions, toll-free access again, after months of disruption. Trump wants the world to believe that this is some kind of victory that he has scored. But he is not foooling anyone. This is not a win, this is a desperate cleanup for a mess that the US has created. Who actually won, who benefited the most from the war? One word: Russia.  The Russian Federation was the biggest gainer in this war in purely economical and even some strategic terms. The energy supply disruption from the Gulf nations caused Russia to pocket a massive windfall, because Arab oil was blocked in the Strait, and President Putin had a lot of oil to sell.  The Hormuz closure drove oil prices sharply higher, boosting Moscow’s export revenues by billions of dollars. The US had to waive its own sanctions on Russian oil because they created a supply crisis in the Strait of Hormuz. Some estimates say Russian earnings may have been several tens of billions of dollars. Higher Urals crude prices, combined with temporary US sanctions easing on Russian oil, gave Putin an economic gift that helped sustain operations elsewhere.  In February, Russia’s discounted Urals crude was selling at $45 per barrel. In mid-March, thanks to the USA, it was selling at $90 per barrel. That’s just the Urals crude; since the Iran war disrupted LNG supplies from the Gulf too, Russia gained additionally from LNG sales. In March 2026 alone, Russia’s oil exports were reported to have surged by $9.3 billion month-on-month. Reuters reported that Russia’s oil and gas revenues were already up by 39% compared to 2025 as of May this year.  Trump wanted Regime change in Iran, but all he did was replace one Khamenei with another   The Iranian theocratic regime that the US beats drums about stays intact. Some say it even strengthened in key ways. US strikes killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, but his son Mojtaba Khamenei was declared the successor, and is stated to be even more of a hardliner, and has better ties with the IRGC than his deceased father. Mojtaba’s succession marked a dynastic-style transition the regime had long avoided, yet it consolidated power around security forces and suppressed opposition. No collapse, no fundamental change happened. Officially, Iran is still ruled by a theocratic regime. Iran ends up ‘gaining’ as the deal details suggest The deal that has reportedly been agreed upon between the US and Iran seems to be giving some much-needed breathing space to Iran. Iran’s assets are to be unfrozen, with a potential release of up to $24 billion in credit lines and cash transfers, as per reports by Iranian state media Mehr News. Iran even gets a 60-day window for nuclear talks with potential room for negotiation and a temporary sanction waiver on oil sales. Latest reports say US is going to release $12 billion of Iran’s frozen assets before the final signing of the deal. Basically, the regime that Trump failed to change will get a revenue flow. Additionally, the Iranian state media is reporting that the deal includes a $300 billion reconstruction plan sponsored by US and its allies, apart from withdrawal of US forces from the region. How much the USA lost? The US seems to have learned nothing at all from the 20-year-old lesson called Afghanistan. Another expensive war on faraway shores that killed their soldiers and destroyed billions of dollars in military assets while their leaders kept thumping chests and claiming victory in outcomes that are basically ‘back to square one’. The direct military losses are estimated at $25-35 billion, with costs climbing with replenishment. Military hardware is where the US loss is most serious. Dozens of drones, including MQ-9 Reapers, F-15s, refuelers, ultra-expensive radars like the THAAD systems that will take years to rebuild, along with the damaged bases across the Gulf region, are a reminder of US taxpayer dollars that have been sunk in another pointless war. US soldiers have lost their lives in the conflict, dozens haven been wounded and and broader economic ripple effects on US, and its allies are yet to reveal their full impact. Apparently, it was all for a deal that largely resets the board to where it was before the fighting started. The bottom line is, Donald Trump is tauting the de-escalation and falling oil prices as some sort of vindication for his “peace through strength” and “America First” slogans, but the enriched uranium stockpile that Iran reportedly had, remains an issue deferred to future talks. The Iranian regime survived under new management. Russia has earned billions, and America is bearing the bill, in blood, ultra-expensive assets, and a depleted treasury. The entire thing looks like a crass joke, on the American public and also on the whole world. A pointless, destructive loop that created a problem through escalation, claimed hundreds of innocent civilian lives and caused economic hardships for billions of people around the world through the disruption of critical supply routes. The Strait that was open and toll-free before is hopefully going to be open and toll-free again, and hopefully, the crude, violent and thoroughly pointless war that the Trump administration imposed on the rest of the world would come to an end soon, with a global bully congratulating itself like a clown.  Another fact is that similar alleged ‘peace deal’ agreements have been declared before, Israel has objected before, and the talks have collapsed before. Unless an actual deal has been signed and sealed and US forces are back in their own waters, a lot can still happen. Conflicting statements, claims and counterclaims are already flying, and Israel has already objected, again.