Multiple people familiar with the matter told CNN that the Pentagon and National Security Council significantly underestimated Tehran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz when planning a war against Iran.
The channel’s interlocutors say that Donald Trump’s administration did not fully appreciate the potential economic consequences of military actions, leading to what some officials now call a “worst-case scenario” for the United States.
Treasury Secretary Scott Besent and Energy Secretary Chris Wright were key players in planning all phases of the military operation, but the president chose to rely on a small circle of his closest advisers, leading to the fact that the debate over Iran’s possible closure of the Strait of Hormuz faded into the background, the sources said.
The reality put officials in a state of “bewilderment and disbelief.” Officials say it could be weeks before the Trump administration’s economic relief efforts begin to produce results.
According to the channel’s sources, the reason the United States underestimated Iran’s willingness to close the Strait of Hormuz is that Washington believed that this would cause much greater harm to Tehran itself.
After the CNN article was published, White House spokeswoman Carolyn Leavitt said that Donald Trump had been “fully briefed” on plans to potentially close the Strait of Hormuz.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a press conference on March 13, called it “absolutely ridiculous” that the Trump administration downplayed the impact of the war in the Strait of Hormuz.
Since the beginning of the war with the United States and Israel, Iran has been closing the Strait of Hormuz, through which a quarter of the world’s oil supplies pass. Shipping through it has practically stopped. Against this background, oil prices rose significantly.