Trump said today that he will "soon" declare the Strait of Hormuz a U.S. territory. Let's be clear about what that would actually be: illegal.

The President has no constitutional power to unilaterally acquire territory. That power belongs to Congress. Every U.S. territorial acquisition in history — Louisiana, Alaska, Texas, Hawaii — required a treaty or an act of Congress. Not a rally speech. Not a proclamation.

And the Strait of Hormuz isn't unclaimed land. It runs through the sovereign territorial waters of Iran and Oman. Seizing it isn't a real estate deal. It's conquest.

Since 1945, the international legal order has explicitly banned exactly this: the UN Charter prohibits "the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity...of any state." The U.S. helped write that rule. Territorial conquest by force is the thing the postwar order exists to prevent.

If this happens, it will not be a bold new policy. It will be an unconstitutional and illegal seizure of another nation's sovereign territory, and it should be named as exactly that from the start, not normalized through repetition.

Silence and shrugs are how a trial balloon becomes policy. Say something.

#StraitOfHormuz #UnconstitutionalAndIllegal #RuleOfLaw #Congress #NoKings #InternationalLaw #Iran #Oman #TerritorialIntegrity #UNCharter