Trump On Hormuz Blockade: "We're Like Pirates - And It's Very Profitable"

Rare agreement with Iranian officials? President Trump has newly said the US Navy is acting "like pirates" as he described an operation about seizing a sh

The Take

Marcus Webb · Surveillance & Tech Privacy

# THE TAKE Trump's candor here is refreshing precisely because it's reckless. He's articulating what policy architects whisper in SCIF briefings: the Strait of Hormuz blockade operates as state-sanctioned extraction. Twenty percent of global oil transits there. Disruption manufactures artificial scarcity, inflating petrodollar valuations. The "piracy" framing exposes the semantic collapse between military strategy and economic warfare. We're not protecting shipping lanes—we're taxing them through force projection. Iran does identical work with asymmetric means; Trump simply refuses the diplomatic euphemism. Here's the dangerous part: he's announced the mechanism. Markets respond to *uncertainty*, not transparency. Once the profit motive is explicitly named, allies recalculate risk exposure. European refineries hedge differently. Strategic competitors accelerate alternatives. By speaking like a ransomware operator, Trump has accidentally revealed that great power competition now trades in the same currency as organized crime: pure leverage.

What the Documents Show

It's a very profitable business," he told the crowd. We're sort of like pirates. But we're not playing games." The admission drew cheers from attendees, suggesting public appetite for framing military asset seizure as profitable enterprise rather than international security operation. The statement carries particular weight because it aligns almost precisely with Iran's formal accusations against the US government. This week, Iran submitted a request to the UN Security Council demanding the US cease "continuing internationally wrongful acts of the United States through yet another piracy-style seizure and deliberate targeting of commercial vessels, namely the M/T Majestic and M/T Tifani." Iranian diplomatic outposts have responded directly to Trump's piracy characterization, with the Foreign Ministry stating through one embassy: "Sort of like pirates?

Follow the Money

No, Donny—that's textbook piracy." The Iranian response notably rejects Trump's qualifier, treating the operations as unambiguous violations of international maritime law. What mainstream coverage has largely overlooked is Trump's explicit framing of these seizures as revenue-generating operations rather than security measures. By describing asset seizure as "very profitable," Trump has articulated what Tehran has long alleged: that the blockade operates partly as a profit mechanism. The statement breaks from the typical diplomatic language governments use when discussing sanctions enforcement or port interdiction, instead adopting the vernacular of commercial operation. The broader implication extends beyond Persian Gulf geopolitics. If military asset seizure is publicly justified on profitability grounds, it establishes precedent for viewing US Navy operations through a commercial lens rather than strictly security framework.

What Else We Know

For ordinary Americans, this suggests defense expenditures may be evaluated not primarily by strategic benefit but by revenue generation potential. The crowd's enthusiastic response indicates this framing may resonate with segments of the American public—a shift in how military operations are conceived and legitimized in domestic political discourse.

Primary Sources

• Source: ZeroHedge
• Category: Surveillance State
• Cross-reference independently — don't take our word for it.

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