https://www.wsj.com/world/middle-east/free-seas-iran-strait-hormuz-toll-3404b2e1?st=r8TAfm&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink (gift)

This is the end of the postwar world order. History’s stupidest president. One of history’s stupidest electorates

«America’s allies worry other players could try to replicate Iran’s example, like empires of the 17th century, when China’s Qing dynasty, the Ottomans and Portuguese taxed passing vessels. Trump has floated his own wish for an American toll on the Persian Gulf, and his expenditure of naval power in the Middle East has given Beijing and its navy—the world’s largest—freer rein to expand control over the South China Sea.

The ripple effects extend to the U.S. dollar, whose standing as the unquestioned currency of seaborne trade helps America keep taxes low and deficits high. Iran, sailors noted, is collecting tolls in Chinese yuan or cryptocurrency.»