On March 16, two weeks into his Iran war, President Trump assured reporters that he had the Strait of Hormuz problem well in hand. “And we’re hammering their capacity to threaten commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, with more than 30 mine-laying ships destroyed,” he said. “We hit, to the best of our knowledge, all of their mine-laying ships.” On March 31, the national average price of gasoline at the pump surpassed $4, the highest level since the post-pandemic shocks of 2022. One-fifth