It's not every day a major policy announcement gets scrapped within 24 hours, but that's exactly what unfolded when Sky News anchor Sean Fletcher interrupted his broadcast to deliver an unexpected update from Washington.
"Some breaking news from Washington now," Fletcher told viewers, explaining that Trump had abandoned his plan to charge a 20% toll on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz a proposal he'd only unveiled the day before. In a fresh post on Truth Social, the president announced that oil was moving through the strait "like never before," attributing the smooth flow entirely to what he described as the overwhelming might of the US armed forces.
What Trump Actually Said
Fletcher read directly from the president's post, in which Trump stated the Strait of Hormuz was now "open to all ship traffic except for Iran." Rather than sticking with the reimbursement fee, Trump said he'd decided to pursue trade and investment commitments from Gulf states instead deals he insisted would be worth enormous sums to the United States. He wrapped up the post with typical bravado, declaring that "America is winning again, winning like never before."
The broadcast then cut to footage from the White House, where Trump was seen greeting Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi. Fletcher noted that Sky News would share further details from that meeting as they became available.
Correspondent Calls Out the Climb-Down
Joining Fletcher in the studio, Sky News correspondent James Matthews didn't hold back when breaking down what had actually happened. He pointed out that beneath all the celebratory rhetoric in Trump's post sat a clear admission the president had reversed a major decision practically overnight.
"Much hyperbole in that Truth Social posting about victory and all the rest of it," Matthews said. "But the guts of it, the newsline, is the stunning climb-down, slap bang in the centre" referring to Trump's own line about swapping the reimbursement fee for investment agreements.
Matthews reminded viewers that just a day earlier, Trump had planned to take a 20% cut from the value of cargo the US military would be protecting as it passed through the strait. That plan quickly drew criticism, with observers noting it clashed with positions taken elsewhere in his own administration. There were also serious doubts about whether such a fee could even work in practice, given the logistical hurdles involved.
A Pattern of Policy on the Fly
According to Matthews, this wasn't an isolated incident. He suggested Trump was simply doing what he's done before correcting a misstep from the previous day and dressing it up as a win. The 20% figure hadn't disappeared, Matthews noted; it had simply been repackaged as future investment pledges, the kind that are notoriously hard to verify or track.
Matthews said that if he'd had the chance to question Trump directly, he would have pressed him on the obvious contradiction announcing one policy on Monday, then presenting a completely different version as a triumphant headline the very next day, with little in the way of hard proof behind it.
He closed his analysis by describing the episode as symptomatic of a broader problem: a president without a clear strategy, chasing a new headline daily amid a conflict he's struggled to manage or exit. In Matthews' view, Trump was once again improvising in real time shaping policy through social media posts, leaving plenty of questions unanswered.
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