- March 21, 2026
Trump Calls Iranian Leadership ‘Thugs And Animals’, Says NATO Has ‘Done Nothing’ On Hormuz
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On what it would take to reopen the strait, Trump said the task was achievable but required collective will.
US President Donald Trump (Image Credit: Reuters)
US President Donald Trump launched a sweeping attack on Iran’s leadership, describing the regime as “thugs, and animals and horrible people” while defending the scale of American military strikes on the country.
“We’ve been hitting them awfully hard. I don’t know if you can possibly get hit harder,” Trump said, adding, “These are thugs, and animals, and horrible people… but I’m not surprised, they executed three young people for protesting.”
Trump’s remarks come as Iran’s Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei said in a defiant message that the “enemy has been defeated” in the ongoing war against the US and Israel as he vowed to continue his father’s mission, including keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed and targeting US regional bases.
NATO Has Done Nothing, Trump Says
Trump turned his fire on NATO allies, accusing the alliance of failing to act on one of the world’s most consequential energy chokepoints.
“I think NATO’s gone down a long way because they haven’t- they should be helping with the strait. They get much of their energy from the Strait of Hormuz,” Trump said, adding that “a lot of Senators and Congressmen- they’re very upset with the fact that NATO has done nothing.”
On what it would take to reopen the strait, Trump said the task was achievable but required collective will. He said, “It’s a simple military maneuver, it’s relatively safe, but you need a lot of help in the sense that you need ships, you need volume. NATO could help us but they so far haven’t had the courage to do so… it would be nice if the countries, including China, if the countries that use it… would get involved.”
The Strait of Hormuz normally carries around 20 per cent of global oil consumption, with approximately 20 million barrels per day of crude oil and oil products transiting the waterway. The conflict has reduced those flows to a trickle, pushing crude oil prices above $100 per barrel and prompting the International Energy Agency to describe the disruption as the largest in the history of the global oil market. The IEA has warned that in the absence of a swift resolution, the impacts on energy markets and economies are “set to become more and more severe.”
March 21, 2026, 01:36 IST
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