‘Awesome’: Murphy Roots for Tehran as Pentagon Denies Naval Blockade Breach

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(Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Chris Murphy has a new one-word foreign policy: Awesome. The Connecticut Democrat, 52, whose name gets floated for 2028 every time he clears his throat, fired off the reply Monday on X to a Lloyd’s List report claiming 26 Iranian “shadow fleet” vessels had slipped past the U.S. blockade President Trump clamped on Iran last week. The Pentagon says the report is wrong. “First of all this is false,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell posted. “Second, a Dem senator cheering on the number one state sponsor of terror is shameful.” awesome https://t.co/nRj1trI3rF — Chris Murphy 🟧 (@ChrisMurphyCT) April 20, 2026

In The Gulf of Oman — A Shot Across the Bow, and Then Into the Engine Room

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(Photo by AFP via Getty Images) /

In every confrontation between nations, there is a moment when words stop working. The radio crackles. A warning is issued. Then another. Then another. And at some point, when the ship on the other end keeps moving, and the crew keeps silent, the decision passes from the diplomats to the gunners. That moment came Sunday in the Gulf of Oman. For six hours, the USS Spruance — a guided-missile destroyer named for an admiral who understood the cost of restraint — shadowed an Iranian-flagged cargo ship called the Touska as it churned toward the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas. The

Open Water, Closed Fist: Trump Keeps Blockade as Iran Claims Strait is Open

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(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

The world’s most critical oil chokepoint is back open — but Washington is keeping the screws on Tehran. President Trump and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi both announced Friday that the Strait of Hormuz is now open for commercial shipping, easing fears of a global energy shock after days of war-driven turmoil. “In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open,” Araghchi wrote on X. Trump quickly claimed the bigger win. “Iran has agreed to never close the Strait of Hormuz again,” the president posted on TRUTH Social.

Four Weeks of Bombing, 36 Hours of Blockade — and Iran’s Economy Goes Dark

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(Photo by Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)

Trump’s quieter weapon is doing the loudest work. There is a subtle, quiet kind of power. That is the power President Trump described Thursday, standing on the South Lawn before boarding Marine One for Las Vegas, and it is worth listening to what he said. “We have a very good relationship with Iran right now,” the president told reporters. “As hard as it is to believe, and I think it’s a combination of about four weeks of bombing and a very powerful blockade.” Then came the line that deserves to travel. “The blockade is maybe more powerful than the bombing,

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