WASHINGTON \u2014 To the victor go the naming rights.<\/p>\n
President Trump is prioritizing taking control of the Strait of Hormuz <\/a>as he grows frustrated with the lack of help from allies to force open the crucial waterway. And once Trump ends Iran\u2019s reign of terror over the shipping route, he\u2019s considering rechristening it the \u201cStrait of America\u201d or even naming it after himself, sources told The Post.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are taking the Strait back. It\u2019s guaranteed, and they will never blackmail us on that strait,\u201d one senior administration official said. \u201cYou can take it to the bank.\u201d<\/p>\n While Trump said Iran is virtually decimated and wants to make a deal, he wants to finish the job in the Middle East \u2014 including ensuring Iran can no longer stop shipping and claim authority over the Strait of Hormuz.<\/p>\n President Trump is considering a renaming the Strait of Hormuz as the \u201cStrait of America\u201d after forcing it open. AP<\/p>\n \u201cHe does believe that if we\u2019re going to guard it, if we\u2019re going to take care of it, if we\u2019re going to police it, if we\u2019re going to ensure free safety through it that, why should we call it that [Hormuz]?\u201d the senior official said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhy don\u2019t we call it, you know, the Strait of America?\u201d<\/p>\n Trump told a Saudi investor forum Friday evening in Miami that he might decide to call the Strait after himself, rather than America.<\/p>\n \u201cThey have to open up the Strait of Trump \u2014 I mean Hormuz,\u201d Trump said.<\/p>\n \u201cExcuse me, I\u2019m so sorry. Such a terrible mistake. The Fake News will say, \u2018He accidentally said.\u2019 No, there\u2019s no accidents with me, not too many.\u201d<\/p>\n The name of the energy bottleneck on the southern coast of Iran is linked to the medieval Kingdom of Hormuz, whose own name is theorized to derive from the Persian word Hur-Mogh, meaning \u201cPlace of Dates,\u201d or the name of the Zoroastrian God of light Ahura Mazda.<\/p>\n The long-gone emirate, which became a vassal of the Portuguese maritime empire in the 1500s, controlled Hormuz Island, a salt dome smaller than Manhattan, past which about a fifth of global oil exports flowed before the war.<\/p>\n The renaming concept gained traction by unlikely means \u2014 after an image of an apparently phony Truth Social post purportedly authored by the president showed a map of the strait with the new name.<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Trump just posted this picture renaming the Strait of Hormuz the \u2018Strait of America.\u2019 Let\u2019s make it happen!\u201d pro-Trump influencer Benny Johnson, who faced repeated plagiarism allegations in his former journalistic career, posted<\/a> on Facebook on March 16.<\/p>\n That doctored map does not appear to have actually been posted by Trump on any of his main social media platforms this month \u2014 but Johnson\u2019s post nonetheless raked in 5,200 mostly supportive comments from people who believed it was real, along with 40,000 \u201clikes\u201d and nearly 3,000 shares.<\/p>\n An apparently fake Trump social media post stoked chatter about the idea, which now is under consideration. Benny Johnson\/Facebook<\/p>\n A White House official said that the rebrand is \u201cnot real\u2026 for now!\u201d <\/p>\n A second White House official more tepidly called it an \u201cinteresting idea\u201d not under consideration \u201cat this time.\u201d<\/p>\n The renaming would not be unprecedented \u2014 after Trump last year forced an official redesignation of the Gulf of Mexico, which now is known as the Gulf of America.<\/p>\n The president and his supporters similarly emblazoned his name onto the facade of the US Institute of Peace in Washington and onto its prestigious performing-arts neighbor, the freshly dubbed Trump-Kennedy Center along the Potomac River.<\/p>\n The latest consideration received mixed reviews among Trump\u2019s supporters.<\/p>\n \u201cThis whole naming thing is getting as tiresome and tacky as the gold in the Oval Office,\u201d said a former Trump administration official. \u201cIt\u2019s only tarnishing his legacy and hurting the party before the midterms.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2018Benefit of the world\u2019<\/p>\n The senior administration official said that Trump is hell-bent on opening the strait as its closure is causing a more than 50% jump in oil prices.<\/p>\n