Is the Strait of Hormuz Trump’s biggest political headache?

The NPR Politics Podcast

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News, Daily News, Politics

4.4 • 25.7K Ratings

🗓️ 5 May 2026

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Iran and the United States have exchanged fire in the Strait of Hormuz in the last couple days as the U.S. military tries to provide safe passage to commercial ships there. We discuss what these developments mean for the ongoing ceasefire, as well as how the war overall has stymied President Trump’s domestic priorities.

This episode: political correspondent Ashley Lopez, national security correspondent Greg Myre, and White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez.

This podcast was produced by Casey Morell and Bria Suggs, and edited by Rachel Baye.

Our executive producer is Muthoni Muturi.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey there, it's the NPR Politics Podcast. I'm Ashley Lopez. I cover politics. I'm Greg
0:09.0	Mirey. I cover national security. And I'm Franco Ordonez. I cover the White House. And we're recording this
0:14.2	podcast at 137 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, May 5th, 2026. Today on the podcast, Iran and the United States exchange fire yesterday
0:23.2	in the Strait of Hormuz. Does this mean the ceasefire is over? Greg, I want to start with you.
0:29.4	Can you tell us what's going on in the straight? Yeah, yesterday the U.S. began what they're calling
0:35.0	Project Freedom. And this comes after a month of relative calm.
0:40.4	We've had the ceasefire. The talks about a peace agreement in the war have been halting. It's been
0:46.8	tense. But there wasn't shooting going on. Now, the U.S. goal with Project Freedom is to open the
0:53.2	strait, to break this Iranian blockade on the
0:57.5	strait that's basically been there since the beginning of the war two months ago.
1:01.4	And the U.S. wants to do it in a seemingly comprehensive way.
1:05.4	We've heard all the talk about U.S. Navy ships escorting oil tankers out of the Gulf. And the way it's being laid out by
1:13.1	the Pentagon is it would be designed to allow for a large flow of traffic. We know the U.S.
1:20.6	Navy has put a couple destroyers through the strait deep into the Gulf, and it has other ships
1:26.8	positioned nearby in those areas
1:29.6	as well. In addition, there are helicopters, fighter jets, drones, radar, early warning system,
1:37.3	all of this designed to create an environment to protect. In fact, they're calling an umbrella
1:43.5	over the Strait of Hormuz to protect against
1:46.6	Iranian attacks with drones and missiles so that traffic can flow through freely and it's not just
1:52.9	a one ship per one oil tanker arrangement. Now, if it works, the U.S. would get a big boost.
2:00.1	It would get these oil tankers out of the Gulf.
2:03.2	This would ease pressure on oil and gas prices worldwide. The U.S. military would look strong, able to
	...

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