President Donald Trump posted an image on Truth Social on Tuesday declaring the Strait of Hormuz a "new U.S. territory," escalating a claim he has repeated in various forms over recent days as the war with Iran drags toward its sixth month.

The image, shared to his account, showed the strategic waterway circled on a map and emblazoned with the words "NEW U.S. Territory," alongside labels marking the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and Iran's coastline.

The Strait of Hormuz sits within the territorial waters of Iran and Oman and serves as a critical corridor through which roughly a fifth of the world's oil supply passes.

The post was not an isolated remark. Trump first floated the idea of annexing the strait days earlier at a campaign-style event on Long Island, telling an audience made up largely of Nassau County police officers that he would soon be declaring the waterway American territory once Iran's defeat was complete.

Asked about the comment in the Oval Office on Monday, he told reporters he liked the idea, arguing the United States already effectively controls the strait through its naval blockade.

He said Iran could still act as what he called a "nuisance" by mining the waters or threatening ships, but maintained the U.S. was already extracting substantial volumes of oil from the area.

About two hours after posting the map, Trump followed up with another Truth Social post insisting there were no talks or conversations underway with Iran, a claim that appeared to contradict earlier statements from him suggesting negotiations were active.

He said the naval blockade remained in full force, described the strait as open and operating, and claimed all water mines in the waterway had been removed or detonated.

Iran's government moved quickly to reject the claim. Deputy Foreign Minister Kazem Gharibabadi posted in Persian that the strait "cannot be seized by tweet, nor by aircraft carrier, nor by issuing an order, nor by an election speech," adding that Iran neither fears threats nor bows to displays of power.

In earlier remarks reacting to Trump's comments, Gharibabadi had also called the annexation claim a "delusion" and Trump himself "a deluded man," warning that the delusion would be corrected.

Tuesday's post also landed hours after Iranian officials said the strait would stay closed unless Washington met a set of conditions, including lifting its blockade of Iranian ports, releasing frozen Iranian assets, ending oil sanctions and halting military operations altogether.

Those terms were laid out by Iranian parliamentary speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf as talks over reopening the waterway remain stalled following the lapse of a 60-day negotiating window.

It remains unclear how much weight Trump's declaration carries as a matter of formal U.S. policy, given that the Strait of Hormuz lies within recognized Iranian and Omani territorial waters under international law, and no accompanying legal or diplomatic action has been announced to accompany the claim.

The White House had not issued a formal statement clarifying the post's status as of the time of this report, and no foreign government beyond Iran had responded publicly to the territorial claim.