The first ships have passed through the Strait of Hormuz as part of Donald Trump’s “Project Freedom”, a US-led operation to escort commercial ships after Iran’s blockade disrupted global oil supplies and stranded hundreds of vessels. 

Tehran has warned it will treat any unauthorised military presence in the strait as a hostile act, and America says there has been some ‘low level kinetic’ activity in the Strait - despite reports of renewed backchannel diplomacy.

So is this a masterstroke from Trump - break Iran’s stranglehold on the Strait while devastating Tehran’s economy with his own blockade? Or is this whole endeavour doomed to fail? 

On this episode of TrumpWorld Matt Frei and Anushka Asthana are joined by analyst Trita Parsi who is co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.