Fox’s Peter Doocy Asks Trump Why He Can’t Reopen the Strait of Hormuz After Destroying Mine Ships

Fox News’s senior White House correspondent Peter Doocypressed President Donald Trumpon why the U.S. can’t just reopen the Strait of Hormuz after the commander in chief claimed any ship that would drop a mine in the shipping route is no more.

Doocy posed the question to Trump on Monday during a White House press conference with the board of the Kennedy Center, an event that was not without awkward moments and stretched truths .

After Trump announced during the event that 30 of Iran’s mine-laying ships “have been destroyed,” Doocy asked why the strait, which was closed by Iran last week and prompted a spike in oil and gas prices, could now just open.

“Now that you’ve announced that the U.S. has destroyed all of the mine-laying ships, why can’t the U.S. just immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz?” Doocy asked the president.

“Well, we could, but it takes two to tango,” Trump replied. “We have to get people to take their billion-dollar ship and, you know, drive it up.”

Read the exchange below:

PETER DOOCY: Something else, now that you’ve announced that the U.S. has destroyed all of the mine-laying ships, why can’t the U.S. just immediately reopen the Strait of Hormuz?

PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Well, we could, but it takes two to tango. We have to get people to take their billion-dollar ship and, you know, drive it up. When Pepe has his big sugar ships coming around and they cost a billion dollars, I would say. “I think it’s OK now, Pepe, take your ship and drive it through the Strait of Hormuz.” He may say, “Let me wait a little while,” because it takes ship owners and — you know, these ships are very expensive. They can cost up to $2 billion. So they don’t want to take a chance, and I think “Gee, I think you will be OK, they have to know it. So that they don’t have to — we don’t know if they even set any mines, but the thought that they may have is enough to keep people from saying, we don’t need it. Now, we are pounding that area, that coast as you know, left side. We are pounding it, like really pounding it hard. And again, they may have no mines set. We hit every one of their mine-droppers third drops, they call it the mine layers, they are pretty sophisticated ships. Everyone of them is gone, but it only takes one. So it’s a little unfair. You know, you win a war, but they have no right to be doing what they are doing. But we are hitting them very hard, and today is a big day. We are pounding a certain area that has very much to do with the strait. And I think we will get it going very soon. In addition, we do have other nations coming in. You need people to watch and people to see. We have other nations coming in.

Watch above via Fox News.

The post Fox’s Peter Doocy Asks Trump Why He Can’t Reopen the Strait of Hormuz After Destroying Mine Ships first appeared on Mediaite .