Trump made the rejection on the record to reporters at the White House on Saturday 26 September 2026. Bloomberg quotes him saying "They made a proposal but I rejected it," as he departed the White House, adding that Iran wanted a deal opening the strait immediately "because they're losing so badly."

CBS quotes him saying "I'm rejecting their deal," while leaving the White House to travel to Tennessee.

Al Jazeera reported that he rejected a plan submitted by Iran to reopen the strait within seven days, while Tehran maintained that only diplomacy can resolve the conflict.

The offer was a conditional package, not a simple reopening. Iran's foreign minister described a plan under which all hostilities in Iran and Lebanon would end during the seven days, Washington would release billions in frozen Iranian assets, waive sanctions on Iranian oil and lift its naval blockade, with the Strait of Hormuz reopening only on the last day.

The Irish Times reported the proposal paired reopening within a week and resumed nuclear talks with the lifting of the US naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Iran's account differed on process. NBC News reported that despite Trump's comments, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said no rejection had come through official channels.

As of late Monday 28 September, Araghchi said Tehran had made no changes to its proposal for a seven-day ceasefire and phased reopening, and was awaiting a formal US response. Since the post, the process has moved: Araghchi met Qatari mediators in Doha and received the US response to the seven-day proposal, according to a source cited by Reuters , and Reuters reporting described a seven-day confidence-building framework and a return to an enhanced version of a June memorandum of understanding, with sequencing, who moves first, the only remaining gap .

On the cost-of-living context the caption invokes: a September Reuters poll of 30 analysts put the average 2026 Brent price at $89.05 a barrel and WTI at $83.90, up from $85.08 and $80.20 in August, with analysts increasingly expecting Hormuz disruption to persist, although Goldman Sachs estimated total Gulf exports had recovered to 23.3 million barrels per day including dark exports.

In early September 2026, Brent was quoted at $96.95 a barrel and US regular gasoline averaged $4.14 a gallon, nearly a dollar higher than the prior year.

A Washington Times report dated 29 September said commercial traffic through the strait increased sharply in September, inching closer to prewar levels, according to maritime tracking firms.