Donald Trump declines to confirm US strike on Iranian vessel

President Donald Trump has declined to confirm whether the US military struck an Iranian vessel, continuing a pattern of strategic ambiguity that has defined Washington’s public posture throughout months of escalating maritime confrontations with Tehran. A year of tit-for-tat in the Strait The latest ambiguity sits atop a stack of confirmed military exchanges that have been building since at least June 2026. On June 25, an Iranian drone struck the Singaporean-flagged cargo ship Ever Lovely in what the White House characterized as a provocation. The US responded the following day with strikes on Iranian missile and drone sites. Trump, at the time, called the Iranian attack a “foolish violation” of an existing ceasefire. He posted about it on social media, hinting at a US response without spelling out what it looked like. By September 2026, US forces had destroyed multiple Iranian oil tankers, including the M/T Kaviz, M/T Charminar, and M/T Horizon 1, among others. Those strikes came after Iranian forces targeted US warships directly, a significant escalation from attacks on commercial shipping. On September 13, the US conducted a deliberately restrained strike, hitting a small Irani...