Hormuz Blockade: Europe Mobilizing Against the U.S., Not the Iran Regime

 

Europe refused to send ships to force the IRGC to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, but is now forming a coalition against the United States. Photo courtesy of the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.

When President Trump announced on Truth Social that the U.S. Navy would blockade “any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” he also instructed the Navy to interdict vessels that had paid tolls to Iran and to destroy mines Iran had placed in the waterway.

CENTCOM subsequently clarified the actual scope: the blockade applies to vessels entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas and does not affect ships transiting the strait to and from non-Iranian ports. The blockade is therefore a naval embargo on Iranian trade, not a closure of the strait to international shipping generally.

Trump took the action in response to Iran’s “world extortion.” The IRGC had imposed a de facto toll regime in the strait. The Tehran regime said that vessels would be required to submit documentation, obtain clearance codes, and accept IRGC-escorted passage through a single controlled corridor. Trump’s goal was to stop Iran from policing the strait and profiting from its closure while the rest of the world absorbed the economic damage. 

Neither the U.S. nor Israel is dependent on oil transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Around the globe, the U.S. is the primary enforcer of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), maintaining freedom of navigation for all countries. Trump’s request for Europe and other allies to support U.S. freedom-of-navigation patrols in the Strait of Hormuz was rejected.

Europe’s argument was that the U.S. took action against Iran unilaterally and therefore could not expect European support. President Trump’s position is that the U.S. has spent trillions defending Europe and keeping sea lanes open around the globe for 70 years, and it was reasonable to ask for reciprocity.

Instead, Europe blames Trump for the Hormuz closure, completely ignoring the fact that it is the IRGC, not the U.S., that has closed the strait.

Their refusal to help reopen it is a classic example of cutting off your nose to spite your face, since Europe’s energy supplies are at stake, not America’s. However, anger at Trump is mobilizing Europe to form a coalition to protect the Strait from America rather than from Iran. 

At the same time, the IRGC warned that military vessels approaching the strait would be dealt with harshly. It is unclear whether the IRGC will allow European ships to counter American vessels. Either way, we are now in an upside-down world where Europe is siding with Iran, while Iran is threatening to sink European ships.

The Western media has also stopped reporting on atrocities committed by the IRGC, including executions of protesters during this ceasefire period. The media seems to have forgotten that over the past 47 years, Tehran has supported thousands of terrorist attacks through the IRGC and its proxies. The press has also stopped focusing on the missile and drone program that is currently threatening global shipping.

Not only is the world ignoring the IRGC’s repression of women, gays, and minorities, but the UN has nominated Iran to the Committee for Program and Coordination, a body that helps shape policy on human rights, disarmament, and terrorism prevention. UN Watch reported that the United States was the only member to dissociate itself from the decision.

They are also ignoring the fact that it is illegal under international law for the IRGC to charge a toll for the use of the Strait of Hormuz. Instead, they are fighting for their “right” to buy sanctioned oil and pay an illegal toll to Tehran.

The European response contains a significant contradiction. The EU has a legal ban on importing Iranian oil, reimposed under the sanctions snapback triggered in August 2025 by France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, which restored six UN Security Council resolutions covering nuclear and missile technology, arms, travel bans, asset freezes, and bans on the import, purchase, and transport of crude oil and petroleum products.

European ships cannot legally buy Iranian crude under EU law. The freedom of navigation Europe is mobilizing to defend therefore applies not to European purchasers but to third-party nations, primarily Asian buyers, transiting the strait without U.S. interdiction.

Canada, Australia, and New Zealand maintain similar frameworks, each prohibiting their citizens and entities from purchasing Iranian oil, with New Zealand adding a compulsory business registration scheme for any dealings with Iran in February 2026.

Peace talks in Islamabad collapsed after more than 21 hours of negotiations. Vice President Vance, who led the U.S. delegation, said Iran refused to commit to abandoning its nuclear ambitions.

Europe, however, now appears willing to tolerate both Iran’s nuclear program and its closure of the Strait of Hormuz, simply because Trump is taking action to resolve both problems permanently by removing the IRGC from power.

Lefty Billionaire Boots Disgraced Swalwell from His $26 Million Beverly Hills Mansion and Demands $1 Million Back After Heinous Sex Assault and Rape Allegations — Then Changes Political Party: “F— the Democratic Party… I Am Done. Finito.”

 

Stephen Cloobeck (L); Eric Swalwell (R)

Lefty casino and timeshare mogul Stephen Cloobeck, who once called Swalwell his “little brother” and poured over $1 million into his flailing campaign for California governor, has dramatically cut all ties and kicked the serial liar out of his luxurious $26 million Beverly Hills mansion.

Cloobeck is now demanding every penny of his cash back after explosive new allegations that Swalwell sexually assaulted multiple women, including a former staffer who claims the Democrat raped her while she was too drunk to consent, the New York Post reported.

  Swalwell has been missing votes in Congress while running for California governor, spending his time hanging out at a multimillion-dollar Beverly Hills mansion owned by one of his top campaign donors. 

Swalwell has visited the lavish 9,700-square-foot estate on Roxbury Drive on at least 10 different days since September.

The property, owned by Las Vegas timeshare mogul Stephen Cloobeck, features six bedrooms, seven bathrooms, a tennis court, double gates, and luxury artwork that Swalwell has used as a backdrop for social media videos and TV interviews.

Congressional records show Swalwell missed House floor votes on at least three days when he posted content from the mansion.

Swalwell missed more votes in 2025 than any other active member of Congress, more than even the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who died in March. 

Cloobeck has been a major backer of Swalwell’s gubernatorial campaign. He contributed $1 million to a supporting committee, provided resources from his own short-lived 2025 governor bid, and previously spent $31,000 on a trip flying Swalwell to Nice, France, according to congressional gift reports. Cloobeck has publicly referred to Swalwell as his “Little Brother” and confirmed the use of his home for campaign work, saying of one televised hit, “That’s my backdrop. Mi casa, su casa.”

The visits occurred during key moments in Swalwell’s campaign, including the October government shutdown, his November campaign rollout, a December campaign stop, and multiple days in January.

Now, according to an explosive New York Post report, Cloobeck confronted the congressman and told him to get the hell out.

The billionaire is done with the entire corrupt Democrat Party, stating, “F— the Democratic Party… I’m a libertarian now.”

He added, “I’m going to change my god d— party affiliation, because I cannot stand this Democratic Party at all… I am done. Finito.”

This comes just hours before Swalwell was forced to suspend his pathetic bid for California governor amid a growing pile of sexual misconduct claims from at least four women.

The Senate Is Broken And Thom Tillis Embodies All That Is Wrong With It

 

United States Congress Thom Tillis

The United States is now without an Attorney General, leaving the top law enforcement office in the country vacant.

On the heels of Pam Bondi’s unceremonious departure, the stakes to deliver justice could not possibly be higher – particularly as Democrats, betting on a favorable midterm, begin looking for opportunities to reclaim some power over the legal system.

At any time, the Justice Department is one of the most important agencies in the Executive Branch, and under a President Trump, who ran on a platform of ending years of injustice caused by a rigged judiciary and increasingly corrupt justice system, its importance is magnified even more. 

This was not a small piece of the President’s campaign pledge – it was a central component.  Ending politicization and weaponization are core tenets of the Trump philosophy.  They remain as relevant today.

Thus, when a Senator like Thom Tillis, currently still the leader of the Republicans on the Hill and member of the all-important judiciary committee, makes a statement that he will not support anyone for the position who called out the injustices of January 6th, that stands as a great betrayal.

Alas, Tillis did just that, recently whining to Kaitlin Collins on CNN that “For me, the threshold for somebody following Pam Bondi ends the moment I hear they said one thing that excused the events of January the 6th. I’ve been very clear on that.”

Tillis presents himself as a buffoon on television, someone completely out of touch with Trump’s core voters and the mandate that carried him back into the Oval Office in a political landslide victory in 2024. 

Tillis now threatens to use January 6th as the barometer for determining whether someone is qualified or not for the vaunted AG position is ridiculous.

In truth, it should go the other way: the only people genuinely qualified for the AG role are the ones who stuck their necks out when the whole world looked the other way and stood for the constitutional rights of American voters who rightly deemed the 2020 elections illegitimate due to voter fraud.

Being able to go against the tide does not make one a crackpot but is the ultimate testimony of great discernment – and good judgment – both absolutely necessary traits for an Attorney General in the Trump age.

To the disappointment of Tillis and his likeminded colleagues, the American people did not want another Bill Barr for AG: they are looking for a reformer who will shake the scales of justice, reverse the wrongs of the last decade, and return democratic accountability to the legal system.

Did Tillis suffer a coma and not live through the last four years of chaos?  Does he forget the nightmares of Letitia James, Jack Smith, and Fani Willis, to say nothing of Merick Garland, who shamelessly abused the Biden DOJ and FBI to launch an unprecedented assault on President Trump, going as far as raiding his private residence, and when that failed, using the entire legal system to prosecute him and put him behind bars so that he could not run a third time?

That alone, which was America’s reality under the dark Biden interregnum, would seem to present enough of an argument to take the fate of the justice system seriously.  Not so for Tillis.

Nor for his mealy-mouthed Republican peers who appear to suffer from selective memory.

Sure, they recall with vivid detail “the horrors” of January 6th – curiously, they conveniently overlook the unrelenting horrors of the three years following that day, which overshadow that day’s problems by leaps and bounds.

Whatever mayhem occurred on January 6th – not only pales in comparison to the mayhem of the BLM riots that preceded it the following summer – but, more importantly, resemble not so much as a blip on the seismogram in comparison with the massive shockwaves sent across the judicial system and country by the full-scale weaponization of justice against Donald Trump and his countless supporters.

Many Americans, simply for exercising their First Amendment rights, were locked behind bars.  Some were even forced into solitary confinement.

Many others were stripped of their human dignity in other ways: years of anxiety and heartache from lengthy legal proceedings, bankrupting many and psychologically torturing many more.

All this happened not in Communist China or Iran or North Korea, but in the United States of America: a country that putatively stands for freedom and has a First Amendment and expressly includes a Due Process and Equal Protection clause, not once, but twice, enshrined in the written document that is its alleged law of the land – the Constitution.

That so many judges, prosecutors, and lawmakers cavalierly swept all this aside – because they were politically traumatized by not so much the protestors who stormed the Capitol on January 6th, but really because of what it all represented: the enduring power of the MAGA movement and America First – goes to show how forgone this country was, and can be again, once the President leaves office for good.

Tillis betrays this country when he makes an issue January 6th, something that is no longer relevant in 2026, other than as a reminder of the work which still needs to be done to course correct the grave injustices inflicted upon this country.

He is wrong to do so, and he had better express some humility and remorse for these terribly vile comments if he does not wish to have his own legacy be tarnished, much as Mike Pence and others before him did, for his cowardice, malice, and stupidity – and for utterly abandoning his higher political duties at a time when this country so desperately needs real leadership.