Analysts say Donald Trump's reduction of joint US-South Korea military exercises is less a reversal of defenses against North Korea's nuclear threat than a pressure tactic to push South Korea toward greater investment in the United States, and is unlikely to have a "fatal" impact. [Reuters]
Analysts say Donald Trump's reduction of joint US-South Korea military exercises is less a reversal of defenses against North Korea's nuclear threat than a pressure tactic to push South Korea toward greater investment in the United States, and is unlikely to have a "fatal" impact. [Reuters]

Donald Trump has again claimed that the Strait of Hormuz belongs to the United States.

Speaking Friday at a rally in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Trump said Iran "desperately wants to make a deal, but I'm not sure we even want a deal — because I now consider the Strait of Hormuz to be US territory." He then doubled down, adding, "That is US territory."

It was not the first time Trump has staked such a claim. On Aug. 14 he said he would "soon be declaring the Strait of Hormuz to be US territory."

He has also pressed the assertion that the United States exercises full control over the waterway. Before departing for South Carolina on Friday, Trump said the US was "in total control" of the area around the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump's visit to South Carolina was aimed at supporting Dallin Graham, a Republican candidate in the Senate runoff election set for Tuesday. Graham is the younger sister of the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, one of Trump's closest allies.

Trump used the rally to urge supporters to back Republicans in the November midterm elections.

"If the name 'Trump' is not on the ballot, I really want to ask you to think of it as if I am on the ballot and just come out and vote," he said.

He warned that a Republican defeat would cost the country border security and tax cuts, and drive businesses overseas. He also said his impeachment could follow.

"You will lose everything, and I will have to go through an impeachment," Trump said, calling members of the Democratic Party "crazy people" and "vicious, violent people."

He continued his ideological broadside against the party, saying, "We are going to demolish the radical Democrats at the ballot box this November and wipe out communism in America once and for all."


moon@heraldcorp.com