Right, so China-linked ships are now moving through the Strait of Hormuz after dealing with Iran, and Donald Trump’s whole control act has taken another punch to the face. He went to China talking about reopening the world’s most important oil lane, talking as though Washington and Beijing were going to put Iran back in its box, and then the ships that actually moved did not move because Trump pulled a King Canute and shouted at the sea. They moved after Tehran agreed to their passage under Iranian management rules. That is the bit that cuts through all the noise, because Trump can call it freedom of navigation, he can name another operation, he can stick a bit of bunting on a naval escort plan and call it strength if he likes, but cargo does not move through Hormuz because of a slogan. It moves when the people controlling the water allow it to move. China understood that quickly enough. Trump is still trying to sell the opposite with the confidence of a man trying to pull rank on a locked door.

Donald Trump’s claim of leverage has run straight into the one thing he cannot spin: the traffic. The White House line after his meeting with Xi Jinping was that both leaders agreed the Strait of Hormuz had to remain open for the free flow of energy, and of course it did, because there is no leader on Earth who is going to stand in front of cameras and say, actually, let’s keep one-fifth of the world’s oil and gas traffic under extreme pressure for fun. But the Chinese readout did not hand Trump the clean victory lap he wanted, and that is where the smile starts to slide off the orange balloon. China did not need Trump to explain that oil lanes matter. China needed its ships to move, and the report from Iran’s side says those ships moved after requests from China’s foreign minister and China’s ambassador to Iran. So Trump gets the statement. Tehran gets the request. China gets the passage. The balance of embarrassment there is not difficult therefore, unless your job is to pretend a photo-op can steer a tanker.