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Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Apr. 12, 2026

April 12, 2026 · The White House · 0:05:41

Embedded from the source channel — never re-uploaded. Watch on YouTube

What happened

President Donald Trump took questions from the press on arrival at Joint Base Andrews on April 12, 2026, as the Islamabad talks ran in parallel. “A lot of very good things are happening with regard to the strait,” he said. “We have some tremendous numbers released economically on jobs and everything else and things are going very well.” On Iran’s position: “I would say it’s holding well. Their military is destroyed. Their whole navy is underwater. You know that 158 ships are gone. Their navy’s gone. Most of their mine droppers are gone.”

He put a clock on the next step: “At 10:00 tomorrow, we have a blockade going into effect. That’ll be 10:00 tomorrow,” with other nations working “so that Iran will not be able to sell oil.” He argued the traffic would reroute through the United States instead: “There are many boats heading toward our country to fill up with oil and then go and take it, so they’re not going to go through the Hormuz Strait… We have more oil because of drill, baby, drill. We have more oil than Russia and Saudi Arabia put together.” Asked about the two pilots, he said: “We are in very good shape and we’re very proud of them.” The published broadcast ends as he takes a question on whether Iran wants to return to the table.

Why it matters

The April 12 gaggle sets the blockade’s start time on the record — 10 a.m. the following day — and states the administration’s rerouting thesis: tanker traffic filling up in the United States rather than transiting Hormuz. It is recorded on the Foreign Policy & Defense hub alongside the Islamabad talks it shadows.

Scoreboard watch

The blockade’s 10 a.m. April 13 start, the 158-ships figure, and the more-oil-than-Russia-and-Saudi-Arabia-combined claim, all as stated by the President, are recorded here as the baseline for the blockade’s course.

Sources: The White House, “President Trump Gaggles with Press Upon Arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Apr. 12, 2026,” Joint Base Andrews, MD, April 12, 2026 (official upload, embedded above). All figures and characterizations as stated by the President at the gaggle.