Trump’s Naval Blockade: Is America Becoming a Rogue State?

**Alastair Campbell** (0:00)
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This is classic Trump. I've got to ceasefire, I'm going to send JD Vance, and it's all going to be done. And they give up because Iran didn't fold on day one.

**Rory Stewart** (0:23)
What's beginning to happen here is an America which doesn't even pay lip service to global norms. In fact, celebrates outrageously chaotically defying them.

**Alastair Campbell** (0:32)
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**Alastair Campbell** (2:27)
Welcome to The Rest Is Politics with me, Alastair Campbell.

**Rory Stewart** (2:30)
And with me, Rory Stewart.

**Alastair Campbell** (2:31)
Back from his holiday.

**Rory Stewart** (2:34)
There's been some request from listeners for whether Alastair ever takes holidays, but that's maybe more of a question for question time than the main episode where we're gonna be focusing on what's happening with the blockade that President Trump has announced of the Straits of Hormuz, the next stage in this conflict with Iran. And then we're gonna get on to Ukraine, and in particular, your recent interview with President Zelenskyy, extraordinary scoop to get an interview with Zelenskyy.
And the issues we're gonna be looking at are, number one, what on earth is going on in Trump's head? Late at night, in the morning, is it possible to predict his next moves? Secondly, what does this mean for the global economy? We haven't begun to get into the consequences for the Middle East, Asia and Europe. And thirdly, I'd like to get into this question of, is the US literally becoming a rogue state now? And how does the world respond if the United States becomes a rogue state? Quick explain on Iran. So since the last episode, Trump having threatened the end of civilization and the obliteration of Iran, there was then a ceasefire, a collective sigh of relief, as everybody thought, well, actually, maybe this whole thing has come to an end. JD Vance, the Vice President, flew to Pakistan in order to negotiate with the Iranian team, came out after a 21-hour negotiation saying they hadn't got anywhere.
And Trump then followed up saying that the US was going to block these Straits of Hormuz, put a naval blockade in place, later clarified as a blockade on any vessels touching Iranian ports. And that's where we currently are. Global oil prices are now rising. Global economies are already feeling the shock because, in effect, what this means is that vessels that were not favoured by Iran, previously were very reluctant to go through the Straits, but vessels with an Iranian stamp could go through. Most of them were going through freely. The US has now stopped that second category of vessels, which effectively means that nobody's going through it because the people the Iranians don't like aren't going through anyway. The people the US don't like in the future wouldn't go through. And there are some exceptions. There's some questions about what's actually happening in the Straits. But if you're Saudi Arabia or if you're Qatar or if, in fact, you're the European or Asian economies, you're very panicked at the moment because, effectively, the Straits are now blockaded and we have no idea when this blockade will be lifted.