Trump Says He Ordered Navy to 'Shoot and Kill' Mine-Laying Boats in Strait of Hormuz; Pentagon Boards Iranian Tanker

President Donald Trump publicly said Thursday that he had ordered the U.S. Navy to “shoot and kill” any boat laying mines in the Strait of Hormuz, and within hours the Pentagon announced that U.S. forces had boarded an Iranian oil-carrying tanker in the Indian Ocean.

What is verified is that Trump made the statement in posts on Truth Social and that the Defense Department publicly announced the boarding and released video and still images of it. In the same posts, Trump also claimed the U.S. had “total control” over the strait and that no ship could enter or leave without U.S. Navy approval. That broader assertion has not been independently verified, and there is no published official written order showing the precise rules of engagement Trump described in his social media language.

Trump wrote, as reported by The Associated Press, “I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be ... that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz,” adding: “I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level.” In a separate post reported by Euronews, he said, “No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the U.S Navy. It is ‘sealed up tight’..."

The vessel named by the Pentagon was the M/T Majestic X, which the Defense Department said was a sanctioned stateless tanker transporting oil from Iran. In a post on X quoted by CBS News, the Pentagon said: “Overnight, U.S. forces carried out a maritime interdiction and right-of-visit boarding of the sanctioned stateless vessel M/T Majestic X transporting oil from Iran, in the Indian Ocean within the INDOPACOM area of responsibility.” That location places the operation outside the Strait of Hormuz itself. The tanker had previously been identified in a Dec. 3, 2024, Treasury sanctions action targeting ships used to move sanctioned Iranian oil as part of what U.S. officials call Iran’s shadow fleet.

Thursday’s boarding was part of a broader U.S. maritime enforcement campaign that has intensified this week. U.S. forces seized the Iranian-flagged container ship Touska on April 19 after firing on its engine room to disable it, according to U.S. military releases reported by USNI News and others. On April 21, U.S. forces boarded the sanctioned stateless tanker Tifani “without incident,” according to Pentagon reporting cited by The Washington Post. U.S. Central Command, the military command overseeing operations in the Middle East, also said U.S. forces had directed 31 vessels to turn around or return to port as part of the blockade against Iran, according to AP.

The confrontation matters well beyond the immediate military moves because the Strait of Hormuz is one of the world’s most important oil chokepoints. In normal conditions, roughly one-fifth of seaborne traded oil passes through the waterway. Reporting on Thursday said Brent crude rose above $100 a barrel as the incidents at sea and blockade concerns renewed pressure on energy markets.

The U.S. has been enforcing a naval blockade of vessels heading to or from Iranian ports since mid-April, even after a provisional ceasefire in the wider conflict began on April 8. The Pentagon’s use of the term “right of visit” refers to a type of boarding associated with ships suspected of being stateless. For now, the clearest public facts are that Trump has openly threatened lethal force against mine-laying boats in Hormuz and that, the same day, the Pentagon disclosed another tanker boarding tied to its expanding maritime campaign against Iranian oil shipments.