Even as Trump presses for a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without tolls or fees, he insists the strait is open to ships. “It’s opened now. Look, the only one that has control of the Strait of Hormuz right now is the United States Navy. We have a blockade that’s been infallible. It’s a steel wall,” Trump said. “We let people in that we want to let in, and those people come in, and they’ve been coming in, and they’re going out.”

“We do not let them go into Iran. They’re not admitted into the strait to go to Iran, but it’s open for others,” Trump said. 

Maritime tracking sites say traffic through the strait is less than 10% of what it was before the war because Iran still has the ability to hit commercial ships with drones. “Can they make trouble? Yeah, they can make trouble,” Trump admitted, “But we control the strait, 100%.”

IRAN: US ‘ADDICTED TO SANCTIONS’: Iran is scoffing at the latest economic pressure, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei accusing the United States of being “incapable of pursuing diplomacy” and having a “compulsive addiction to sanctions.”

“It is an addiction that has displaced thought itself,” Baqaei posted on X. “Iran has demonstrated over decades that it will not be strangled by these exhausted refrains.”

Baghaei said Iran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the U.S. ends its naval blockade on Iranian ports.

In a widely shared social media post, Majid Shakeri, an adviser to Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, suggested Iran’s strategy may be to just wait until Trump leaves office in 2029. 

“Trump will not reach an agreement with us. We will accompany him until his term ends,” Shakeri posted, according to one translation on X. “The path to victory in this war is neither just fighting nor just reaching an understanding. The path to victory is ‘managing the process of neither war nor peace, up to the point of victory.’”

DUELING DEMANDS: We’re now at the point in the war where both sides are making demands that the other cannot or will not ever meet.

Iran wants the U.S. to lift the blockade on Iranian posts, pay billions in compensation for months of war damage, lift all economic sanctions, and release Iran’s frozen assets. 

In response yesterday, Trump posted on Truth Social his own demands for compensation. “It is an interesting idea because now I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran, for all of the people that they have killed and gravely wounded with their roadside bombs and many conflicts, for which they are famous,” Trump said. “Additionally, compensation should be paid to the families of the hundreds of thousands of innocent protestors that Iran has killed over the last 50 years, not to mention the 52,000 that have been killed in the last five months. I have instructed my representatives to put this firmly into any, and all, future negotiations.”

“They asked for money for the damage that we’ve done. I said that’s a good idea. But we’re going to ask for money for the damage they’ve done over a 50-year period,” Trump told reporters later in the Oval Office. “So if there’s damages to be paid, I think Iran should pay those damages.”

TRUMP DEMANDS ‘COMPENSATION’ FROM IRAN FOR AMERICANS KILLED BY ‘ROADSIDE BOMBS’

Good Tuesday morning, and welcome to Jamie McIntyre’s Daily on Defense, written and compiled by Washington Examiner National Security Senior Writer Jamie McIntyre (@jamiejmcintyre) and edited by Keely Bastow. Email here with tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. Sign up or read current and back issues at DailyonDefense.com. 

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TRUMP’S COVERT FLIGHT OUT OF TURKEY — ‘AN ELABORATE RUSE’:  Turns out there’s a lot more to the story of why Trump switched planes when it left last month’s NATO summit in Ankara, Turkey.

Trump’s cover story was never credible, that U.S. forces stationed in England would be called out in the middle of the night to inspect the new luxury Air Force One 747 gifted by Qatar, and that Trump would follow in the old Air Force One “for old times sake.”

New reporting from the Washington Post reveals that Trump wasn’t on the plane with his staff and the traveling press, but instead had been secretly transferred to a smaller plane hidden from view in an airport catering truck. The threat of an assassination attempt by neighboring Iran was deemed a credible enough threat to justify the clandestine maneuver, worthy of a spy thriller, to ensure the president’s safety.

Reporters were unaware Trump wasn’t on the plane as it made its way to the United Kingdom, and Trump evaded later questions as to why they were told to keep the window shades down on the old 747 as it took off.

Asked on the flight back to Washington if there was a “security concern,” Trump brushed it aside. “No, no. Why would there be?”

“Do you know why they had us close our window blinds?” a reporter asked. ”Well, yes, because you’re, you know, probably on a dangerous flight because of the sleazebags that we have to deal with.”

Little did the reporters and others on the old Air Force One know they were on the “decoy” plane.

WAS THERE A NEED TO KNOW? The White House and the Secret Service had no intention of disclosing the subterfuge — the kind of anecdote usually reserved for a memoir published long after the fact.

But the reporter who broke the story, Dan Lamothe, national security reporter for the Washington Post, argued the public has a right to know where the president is and when he is in danger. “This came to The Post in part because individuals thought that there was a hole in public understanding here that needed to be clarified,” he wrote.

The press corps and others on the decoy aircraft were also kept in the dark, even after the threat had passed. “My understanding is there was some White House staff that did not know. This was kept close-hold in a small group,” Lamothe said on CNN last night. “The White House press corps, which reported not only on that day but in the subsequent weeks as well, that the president had traveled on the quote-unquote, ‘Old Air Force One.’ That’s simply not the case, we’re told.”

“This was a surreal story to cover. The initial discussions, the initial tip, and then looking into it, you’re — I kept finding myself saying, you know, like, What am I missing? Is this true?” Lamothe told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins. “Not an easy story to confirm. I mean, it obviously took some time, since that event, to put this all together, and put this together in a way that was convincing and confirmable and able to report it.”

“I think reporters understood — look, their own safety was at stake as well. Reporters understood that there were reasons why there are elements of that trip that needed to be kept under wraps until after the president was safely in and out of those places,” said David Axelrod, a former senior adviser to President Barack Obama, who is now an analyst for CNN. “And then the other piece of it is that, in fact, everyone on that plane was a decoy. If they felt that it was unsafe to be on the plane, then it was unsafe for everybody else to be on the plane as well. So, they at least deserve to know, if not then, then after, why this was happening.”

READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

THE RUNDOWN: 

Washington Examiner: Trump demands ‘compensation’ from Iran for Americans killed by ‘roadside bombs’

Washington Examiner: Strategic Petroleum Reserve hits lowest level since 1983

Washington Examiner: Board of Peace undeterred by Israel’s rejection of peace plan at this stage

Washington Examiner: UK naval drones had components that secretly transmitted data to China

Washington Examiner: China is the elephant in the room as Trump and Hegseth rage over munitions

Washington Examiner: More than 60 Democrats are investigating ICE arrests of military family members

Washington Examiner: State Department has revoked 175,000 visas for foreign nationals, citing violations

Washington Examiner: Steve Witkoff: How Trump turned a frozen conflict into model for peace

Washington Examiner: Opinion: Will Ukraine retaliate against North Korea outside of the war zone?

Washington Post: Contradicting Public Statements, Trump Took Secret Flight from Turkey amid Iranian Threat

Wall Street Journal: Gulf States Accept a New Normal in Hormuz: Iran Is in Control

AP: Pentagon Official Asks Asian Allies to Invest More in Defense to Deter Aggression

New York Times: Taiwan Gingerly Tests How It Would Cope if China Choked Its Internet

Defense One: ICBM Killer Passes Two Key Tests Ahead of Design Review, Lockheed Says

Defense Scoop: DARPA Looking to Develop ‘Foundation’ of Next-Generation Hypersonic Missile Work

The War Zone: Drone Sightings Are Happening at Diego Garcia, America’s Remote Strategic Island Outpost

Tectonic Defense: Swarm Aero Wins $10M Air Force Research Lab Contract

Breaking Defense: Air Force Seeks AI Tool to Help Manage Minuteman III ICBM Sustainment

Breaking Defense: Agentic AI Turning Zero Trust Cybersecurity ‘on Its Head’

Air & Space Forces Magazine: Key C-17 Base in South Carolina Renamed After Sen. Lindsey Graham

Air & Space Forces Magazine: Air Force Promotes Fewer Staff Sergeants After Last Year’s Historic Surge

Air & Space Forces Magazine: New Superintendent Takes the Reins at Air Force Academy

THE CALENDAR: 

TUESDAY | AUGUST 11  

10 a.m. — Arab Gulf States Institute virtual discussion:  “Beyond the Strait: The Future of Global Energy Security,” with Carole Nakhle, CEO of Crystol Energy and secretary general of the Arab Energy Club; Adnan Shihab-Eldin, senior visiting research fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies; Robin Mills, AGSI non-resident fellow and CEO of Qamar Energy; Kate Dourian, AGSI non-resident fellow, MEES contributing editor and fellow at the Energy Institute https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register

1 p.m. — Foreign Policy webinar: “The Gulf’s Postwar Playbook,” with former White House National Security Council Director for Arabian Peninsula Affairs Allison Minor, director, Atlantic Council Project for Middle East Integration https://foreignpolicy.com/live/allison-minor-gulf-iran-postwar-playbook

THURSDAY | AUGUST 13 

10 a.m. —  Hudson Institute discussion: “Six Months After Epic Fury: The State of the Conflict in the Gulf,” with Behnam Ben Taleblu, Iran Program senior director and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies; Michael Doran, senior fellow and director at the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East; Ludovic Hood, senior fellow at the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East; and Zineb Riboua, research fellow at the Center for Peace and Security in the Middle East https://www.hudson.org/events/six-months-after-epic-fury-state-conflict-gulf

FRIDAY | AUGUST 14 

7:30 a.m. 11493 Sunset Hills Rd. Reston Va. — Government Executive Media Group discussion: “Beyond the Platform: Inside the Army and Navy’s Expanding Unmanned Systems Market,” with John Carbone, senior technical director for supporting government and critical infrastructure for Everfox; David Hutchins, director of defense technologies and naval systems for Forecast International; Erin Kocourek, vice president of business development and space for CACI; Matt Marsden, senior director of solutions consulting for Palo Alto Networks; former Assistant Defense Secretary for Space Policy John Plumb, head of strategy for K2 Space; Todd Stevens, vice president of mission strategies and advanced capabilities and strike, deterrence and missile defense for Lockheed Martin Space; and Nick Wakeman, editor-in-chief of Washington Technology https://events.govexec.com/wt-power-breakfast-beyond-the-platform/