When pressed recently on reports that Iran may charge tolls for passage through the Strait of Hormuz, President Donald Trump said he was considering partnering with Tehran on charging for access to the critical shipping waterway — a remark that CNN’s Fareed Zakaria warned might be an indicator of the United States’ eventual collapse in the conflict.
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl asked Trump last week about his thoughts on the idea of Iran charging tolls for vessels transiting the shipping channel, to which the president said “we’re thinking of doing it as a joint venture,” which he described as a “way of securing it from lots of other people” and a “beautiful thing.”
“These are revealing remarks. Not because they are outrageous — Trump has said many outrageous things — but because they distill a worldview,” Zakaria wrote in an op-ed published recently in The Washington Post. “They suggest a shift in how the United States might see its role: not as the guarantor of a system, but as a participant in a deal.”
For decades, the United States has been the world’s chief enforcer of freedom of navigation for vessels traveling international waters. Trump’s remarks, suggesting the United States could abandon that role and even help enforce restrictions, reflected what Zakaria described as the president’s “broader worldview,” and one that could ultimately destabilize the country beyond repair.
“To treat the Strait of Hormuz as a tollbooth rather than a global commons is to misunderstand both history and strategy. The U.S. benefits most not from charging per ship for access, but from building a world in which commerce flows freely and Washington’s central position is reinforced,” Zakaria wrote.
“To abandon that model for short-term extraction is to trade a durable advantage for a fleeting gain. If the U.S. becomes just another predatory hegemon, it will discover what history has long shown: Such power is feared, resented and ultimately resisted. And in time, it is not sustained – but overturned.”
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