Trump Trade: President pitches Strait blockade as boost for U.S. exports

Catch up on the top industries and stocks that were impacted, or were predicted to be impacted, by the comments, actions and policies of President Donald Trump with this daily recap compiled by The Fly.

STRAIT BLOCKADE: U.S. President Donald Trump is pitching the idea of a U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz as an opportunity for American oil-and-gas exporters, but the squeeze on supplies will likely poorly impact gas prices at the pump, Collin Eaton and Benoit Morenne of The Wall Street Journal report. The plan would potentially cut off 2M barrels of oil Iran has continued to ship through the Strait each day, with most headed to China. With the bottleneck in the Middle East, more countries will turn to the U.S. for oil and gas. Currently, U.S. crude exports are on pace for 5M barrels a day this month, but, while the U.S. produces 13M barrels of oil a day, most of that supply is spoken for. So, prices at the pump are set to keep rising if the U.S. exports more oil and gas, draining its inventories. Publicly traded companies in the space include BP (BP), Chevron (CVX), ConocoPhillips (COP), Exxon Mobil (XOM), Shell (SHEL), TotalEnergies (TTE), Enbridge (ENB), and Cheniere Energy (LNG).

Meanwhile, President Donald Trump stated on Truth Social, “Iran’s Navy is laying at the bottom of the sea, completely obliterated – 158 ships. What we have not hit are their small number of, what they call, “fast attack ships,” because we did not consider them much of a threat. Warning: If any of these ships come anywhere close to our BLOCKADE, they will be immediately ELIMINATED, using the same system of kill that we use against the drug dealers on boats at Sea. It is quick and brutal. P.S. 98.2% of Drugs coming into the U.S. by Ocean or Sea have STOPPED!”

DEFAMATION LAWSUIT: A federal judge dismissed President Trump’s defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal (NWS; NWSA). U.S. District Judge Darrin Gayles ruled Trump hadn’t made a valid legal claim that he was defamed by an article about a letter to financier Jeffrey Epstein bearing Trump’s name, the Journal reports.

Not long after, President Trump said on social media, “Our powerful case against The Wall Street Journal, and other defendants, was asked to be re-filed by the Judge. It is not a termination, it is a suggested re-filing, and we will be, as per the Order, re-filing an updated lawsuit on or before April 27th. President DONALD J. TRUMP”