Fact check: Traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.
Fox News is not buying the Trump administration’s claims that the U.S. controls the Strait of Hormuz instead of Iran.
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright spoke to the network’s Bret Baier Thursday evening and didn’t have a good answer when Baier asked him about the strait.
“Mr. Secretary, you can concede, can’t you, that the U.S. doesn’t have total control over the Strait of Hormuz?” Baier asked.
“Look, Iran is attempting to hold the world economy hostage and to terrorize their neighbors. They built up a giant arsenal. So are they causing difficulties in the region? Absolutely. But they have a losing strategy. At the end, that will lead to the collapse of this regime in Iran as their economy gets strangled,” Wright responded. “But are they causing some difficulties for their neighbors and the world economy? Absolutely. But their ability to cause difficulties are declining. Our ability to escort and bring products out of that region is growing. They have sort of one card and it’s shrinking in size.”
“That does not sound like total control,” Baier said.
At one point in the interview, Baier played a clip from November in which Wright claimed energy prices would plummet. He then showed the secretary that energy costs are much higher now. Wright ignored Baier’s comparison, claiming that costs were down.
But don’t worry, Donald Trump says the Strait of Hormuz will soon be a territory of the United States.