New Delhi, Aug. 13 -- WASHINGTON - The tankers still need Iran's permission. That operational reality did not change on Thursday when Donald Trump posted on Truth Social that the United States has "total control" over the Strait of Hormuz, a waterway through which one-fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas once flowed freely and where Tehran has required transit authorization and fees from every vessel since February 28.

Trump's posts were blunt. "The US has total control over the Strait of Hormuz," he wrote on Truth Social Thursday morning. "I THINK WE WILL KEEP IT!" In a second post, he said the naval blockade of Iranian shipping "is being called, by everyone, a WALL OF STEEL." Neither post elaborated on what evidence under...