Trump's phone calls cannot fix the Houthi blockade
By Imani Sutton · Reporting from Atlanta ·
The White House is treating a global energy hemorrhage like a misunderstood business deal.
# The White House is treating a global energy hemorrhage like a misunderstood business deal
As President Donald Trump touched down at Shannon Airport in Ireland, he told the world the Houthis "called us" and the situation would "work out very well." Meanwhile, the map of the world shifted. Al Jazeera reports that the Houthis seized the coastal town of Dhubab, Perim Island, and the port of Mocha. This locks down the Bab al-Mandeb, a chokepoint for roughly one-eighth of global oil.
Trump believes a few phone calls and a "good friend" in Mohammed bin Salman can override a blockade. He said the Houthis "are not targeting American ships" and "allowing most ships to pass." But for a driver in a 2012 Corolla in Atlanta, the President’s "tight control" over the Strait of Hormuz feels like a tax on their commute. This mirrors the 2019 US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, when the administration bet that personal chemistry could replace institutional security.
Why the "Brief Interruption" Costs Billions
Saudi Arabia is scrambling. In February, Iran blockaded the Strait of Hormuz, cutting off one-fifth of global oil and gas supplies. The Kingdom diverted exports to the East-West pipeline leading to the Red Sea port of Yanbu. Then, last week, missiles struck that pipeline. Explosions damaged two pumping stations and silenced Yanbu, the primary escape valve.
CNBC said Saudi Arabia is now offering ship-to-ship crude transfers near Oman’s Sohar port to reach Asian refiners. This is a logistical scramble, not frictionless commerce; tankers must idle in open water, connecting heavy hoses in a desperate attempt to bypass the blockade. U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright called the outage a "brief and temporary interruption" that will be "measured in days."
Wright's claim masks a structural collapse. In August, Saudi oil exports to Asia fell to a fraction of their June peak.
| Month | Saudi Exports to Asia (Barrels/Day) | | :--- | :--- | | June | 3.4 Million | | August | 128,000 |
The 2019 Abqaiq–Khurais attack proved that drones can turn a state-of-the-art facility into a bonfire in minutes. Houthi attacks on shipping between 2021 and 2023 served as a trial run for the current seizure of the Yemeni coast. Every time officials claim the system can withstand a hit, a missile shifts the cost onto the consumer.
The New Tanker War
The world has entered a new Tanker War. Between 1981 and 1988, Iran and Iraq attacked merchant vessels in the Persian Gulf to bleed each other dry. The strategy is identical today. By seizing Bab al-Mandeb and blockading Hormuz, the "Axis of Resistance" turns the map into a weapon. They force exporters into expensive, makeshift logistics to create a bottleneck they can use as a bargaining chip.
Hiroyuki Kikukawa of Nissan Securities suggests a U.S.-China summit next week might cap price gains. This approach relies on mood rather than mechanics. Diplomacy cannot repair a bombed pumping station or clear a blockade. The administration argues that avoiding military escalation during an election year prevents a regional war, but this stability is a facade. By refusing to secure the maritime chokepoints, the U.S. trades a fast military conflict for a slow economic one.
History shows that when chokepoints become weapons, the only exit is a shift in power or a costly security guarantee. The "Multinational Defensive Maritime Alliance" is a paper shield.
Officials call the energy crisis a temporary glitch, but the record shows it is a feature of a system that prioritizes short-term profits over stability. The U.S. is paying for a "smart" future with a 1980s-style crisis. The administration treats the collapse of the Red Sea trade route as a minor scheduling conflict. Because of this, US petrol prices have already jumped by over a third. If the U.S. continues to believe a blockade is something a phone call can fix, consumers will pay for that delusion at the pump until the tanks run dry.