The Strait is closed. That was the objective.

Nonsense. Closing the Strait means gas prices are elevated for Americans. (Worse for those in Asia, of course, but so what?) Higher gas prices hurt Trump at the mid-terms, and even with his gerrymandering he may not overcome that.

Yes, closing the Strait also hurts Iran, but two things: first, they don’t really care about what happens to the citizenry. And two, they have ways to ameliorate the issue: they have borders with 7 countries, most of whom are if not sympathetic, at least not antagonistic to them (especially as compared to the US): Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan.

There is already significant smuggling going on across several of those borders: everything from oil going in one direction to consumer goods coming in the other. If this is siege mentality it’s the leakiest siege in recent memory.