WASHINGTON D.C Sept 2, 2026 – President Donald Trump said Tuesday night that U.S. forces destroyed 28 ships in the Strait of Hormuz and now control the waterway, after Central Command confirmed a new wave of strikes on Iranian military targets.
“We now control the Strait of Hormuz. Last night we took out 28 boats and 28 ships. We control it; they get nothing,” Trump said in remarks circulating Wednesday. In another version of the comments, he added that Iran “will never obtain a nuclear weapon.”
The claim spread quickly after accounts including BRICS News posted it as breaking news. It has not been independently confirmed at that exact number.
U.S. Central Command said Tuesday that American forces struck Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps targets after attempted attacks on commercial shipping and U.S. personnel. The targets included air defenses, radar systems, maritime assets and facilities, mine-laying capabilities, and communications sites. Trump separately posted that the strikes were “large and powerful” and came in response to an Iranian attempt to place sea mines in the strait.
CENTCOM did not report destroying 28 ships in a single night. The command described the operation as a completed wave of strikes on maritime and related targets, not a confirmed ship-by-ship tally.
The fighting is part of the U.S.-Iran war that began Feb. 28. The conflict has repeatedly centered on the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow passage between Iran and Oman that carries a large share of the world’s seaborne oil. The United States has spent months striking Iranian naval assets, escorting commercial traffic, and enforcing restrictions on Iranian ports. Iran has used mines, drones, missiles, and small boats to contest the waterway.
Trump has made similar claims before. Over the course of the war he has said U.S. forces sank or disabled groups of Iranian warships, mine-layers, and fast boats, with the numbers changing from statement to statement. Pentagon and CENTCOM updates have confirmed many strikes on Iranian maritime targets, but they have often been more general than the president’s counts.
The latest exchange followed Iranian attacks and U.S. strikes around Larak Island and other points near the strait, ending a stretch of relative calm. More than 50,000 U.S. personnel remain in the region. The Pentagon has reported 18 U.S. service members killed and more than 750 wounded since the war began.
Iran has rejected U.S. assertions of control over the strait and has said the waterway remains Iranian. Commercial traffic is moving again under U.S. protection, according to American commanders, but volumes remain well below pre-war levels and attacks on shipping have continued intermittently.
The 28-ship figure should be treated as a presidential claim pending a more detailed military accounting. What is confirmed is that U.S. forces struck Iranian maritime and mine-related targets on Sept. 1, and that Trump is using that operation to argue Washington now dominates the world’s most important oil chokepoint.
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