Hesitance to resume transport through the Strait of Hormuz reportedly has the president considering a “VIP pass” to restore operations.
Since President Donald Trump announced a deal had been struck with Iran, alleged specifics have been bandied about by corporate media outlets and talking heads. While the chief executive posited a solution to work around that, Politico released a new report citing unnamed sources regarding a proposal from the Oval Office to charge a fee for a U.S. Navy escort in lieu of insurance coverage.
Referencing “three people familiar with the discussions,” the outlet reported that Trump and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles sought alternative solutions to “convince shop owners to take the risk of transiting the strait as the United States and Iran continue peace talks … The discussions so far have centered on ways to convince insurance companies to offer coverage to travel through a narrow waterway in which Iran has successfully attacked vessels.”
“The President and Susie are giving them explicit orders to figure something out,” a source “familiar with the discussions” was reported as saying. “With limited exceptions, every transit [through Hormuz] is violating insurance plans. So what can be done to accelerate the insurers to start insuring again?”
Commodity analysts firm Kpler detailed that 220 oil tankers were among the nearly 500 ships that would otherwise be passing through the strait.
“There is some talk of some expedited escorted passage by paying the U.S. — like putting a VIP pass on your ship,” said one of the sources. “The concept is that there could be a fee for expedited clearance, maybe with military escort.”
As the full details of the deal with Iran remained to be seen, reports of a potential “VIP pass” were also seen as possibly being little more than a negotiating tactic amid meetings in France for the G7 summit. The president repeatedly called out leaders of the group for their own inaction in the wake of Operation Epic Fury.
Meanwhile, amid mixed reports on the details of the deal ahead of its public release, the president floated the idea of holding a news conference where he would read it aloud to force corporate media to cover the text verbatim, circumventing any propaganda and misinformation spreading from unreliable sources.
“I will, actually, I’ll not only release it, I’ll probably have a press conference and read it to you word by word so that the press covers it accurately because it’s a very important document,” said Trump during a meeting with United Arab Emirates President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. “And unlike [former President Barack] Obama, who could have destroyed the Middle East with a horrible JCPOA — it is the worst agreement — that is the road to a nuclear weapon, mine is a wall against a nuclear weapon.”
🚨 JUST IN: President Trump announces he’s going to hold a press conference and personally READ EVERY WORD of the Iran deal to force the fake news into covering it accurately
GREAT IDEA 👏🏻
“I will actually not only release it. I’ll probably have a press conference and read it… pic.twitter.com/wSWBpyzMuJ
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) June 16, 2026
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