WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday threatened to impose U.S. tolls in the Strait of Hormuz if a final deal with Iran isn’t reached in 60 days. Trump, spending the weekend at Camp David, underscored that the initial agreement to end the war with Iran calls for toll-free travel through the vital waterway for 60 days. Then he said: “there will be NO TOLLS after the 60 day period has expired, unless they are imposed by and for the United States of America, should the deal not be completed.” Trump said the money would be for “services rendered as the Guardian Angel to the countries of the Middle East for purposes of both past, present, and future reimbursement of costs.”
The U.S. president has faced a lot of blowback domestically for how the memorandum of understanding with Iran addresses the issue of tolls in the Strait of Hormuz. The deal only secures toll-free passage for 60 days and doesn’t preclude future fees.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
TYRE, Lebanon (AP) — Iran on Saturday said it had closed the Strait of Hormuz because of Israel’s continued attacks in Lebanon and warned that while negotiators were going to Switzerland for talks with the United States on their interim agreement, not much is likely to happen if the fighting doesn’t stop.
Key mediator Pakistan said technical-level talks will begin Sunday in Switzerland, with Qatari mediators also participating.
Iran’s joint military command said the strait was closed because of the U.S. “clear breach of its commitments” by failing to end the war. The interim deal is meant to stop fighting on all fronts.
Shortly after that, the state broadcaster said Iran’s negotiating team was leaving for Switzerland, a trip originally planned for Friday. State media said the team includes parliamentary Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and central bank and oil officials, among others.
The U.S. disputed Iran’s announcement on the strait. “Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz. Traffic continues to flow, and U.S. forces are monitoring the situation to ensure this remains the case,” said Capt. Tim Hawkins, a spokesperson for U.S. Central Command. The military said 55 merchant ships transited Saturday with more than 17 million barrels of oil.
Iran’s team departs for talks as uncertainty grows
Negotiations toward a final agreement will begin only once key commitments are upheld, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmail Baghaei said. If they are not, “the memorandum of understanding as a whole will be jeopardized.”
U.S. Vice President JD Vance confirmed that top negotiators Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff were already in Switzerland and working through technical details of anticipated negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program. The interim deal gives negotiators 60 days to reach a nuclear agreement, but that can be extended.
Vance told Fox News that he expects to leave for Switzerland in “the next couple of days.”
As part of efforts to revive the direct talks, Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi met Araghchi in Tehran earlier Saturday, according to officials in Islamabad who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
The global economy braced for more uncertainty.
Ships began transiting after the interim U.S.-Iran agreement was signed earlier in the week, a milestone that left plenty of questions unanswered. The U.S. lifted its blockade of Iran’s ports and is now allows Tehran to sell its oil freely. The deal also calls for Iran’s assets to be unfrozen.
Israeli attacks in Lebanon kill at least 16
In Lebanon, a Hezbollah official told The Associated Press that Iran informed the militant group that Tehran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until Israel announces publicly that it will comply with a “comprehensive ceasefire” in Lebanon and an end to military operations there. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly.
The official said Hezbollah will commit to a ceasefire if Israel does. There was no immediate Israeli comment.
Earlier Saturday, Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon killed at least 16 people, including two children, hours after reports emerged of a ceasefire agreement there. Seven people were trapped under rubble after strikes hit the southern city of Nabatiyeh and nearby villages, Lebanon’s National News Agency said.
The death toll in the latest war between Israel and Hezbollah has surpassed 4,000, Lebanon’s health ministry later announced. A heavy exchange on Friday killed at least 47 people in Lebanon and four Israeli soldiers.
An Israeli military official, speaking anonymously in line with regulations, said Hezbollah fired more than 50 projectiles at Israeli forces in southern Lebanon overnight. Israel’s army said it struck dozens of Hezbollah targets and militants in southern Lebanon.
On Friday, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, Yechiel Leiter, said Israel “remains firmly committed to an immediate ceasefire” if Hezbollah honors the agreement and ceases hostilities.
Earlier Saturday, Hezbollah said it had committed to the ceasefire but blamed Israel for violating it Friday night and said it would repel attacks by Israeli troops.
The conflict could sink the US-Iran deal
Neither Israel nor Hezbollah is a signatory to the deal between the U.S. and Iran, which calls for a halt to military operations in Lebanon and for the country’s sovereignty to be respected.
Hezbollah and Israel went to war two days after the U.S. and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Feb. 28, with Hezbollah firing rockets and drones at northern Israel and Israel seizing large swaths of southern Lebanon.
A new round of U.S.-backed talks between the Lebanese government and Israel is expected to take place in Washington next week.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to keep Israeli forces in southern Lebanon until any threat to Israel is eliminated. Hezbollah has refused to halt its attacks unless Israel commits to withdrawing from Lebanon, which Iran says is also a condition of the deal.
Fighting continues near the Israel-Lebanon border
A strike on Barish village killed four members of a family: parents and two children. In Arab Salim village, a body was pulled from a destroyed house, and in Doueir and Kfar Rumman villages, drone strikes killed a person on a motorcycle and a Lebanese soldier. Nine people were killed in strikes in Qannarit, Sohmor and Shehour villages.
Smoke rose into the sky over southern Lebanon and Israeli jets flew low over the coastal city of Tyre. Residents told The Associated Press they were relieved that Tyre had been spared in recent days, but now they were reminded that the war is not over.
“Our entire lives would change if there’s a ceasefire,” said one resident, Hussein Khoshman.
Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin said Israeli forces were operating in a “forward defense zone” and would continue doing so.
Some residents of northern Israel doubted the fighting would stop. “I don’t believe in a ceasefire because it doesn’t exist,” said Miriam Hod in Metula.
Donald Trump has a long history of embellishment around his success as a businessman, for years lobbying Forbes to pump up its estimates of his net worth—occasionally while using the name John Barron, a persona he invented—and even outright lying about the size of his penthouse and other properties. And when it comes to his portfolio of golf courses, Trump can stretch the truth like a par-5.
Legal documents reveal that Trump has improperly tallied sunk costs, overvalued land and undervalued his membership liabilities—deposits he would have to return to his courses’ golfers if they leave the club—while the financial disclosure reports he has released as president and other public filings offer little in terms of how he arrived at the numbers.
Trump has also inflated the size of his golf courses’ real estate. For instance, while he long claimed in marketing materials that Trump National Doral was 800 acres, property records show the resort is less than 700.
But regardless of the inaccuracies or inconsistencies, make no mistake: Trump’s golf empire is worth a fortune.
Together, the 14 courses he owns, along with one other course that bears his name through a licensing deal, pulled in more than $350 million in estimated revenue in 2024, and Forbes values the properties collectively at roughly $1 billion—a sixth of his $6.1 billion net worth. Forbes estimates that Doral alone is worth $255 million net of debt, making it the second-most-valuable property in his entire real estate portfolio, after the $564 million Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida.
Trump’s golf empire is also on the upswing, even after he sold off his lease for a public course in the Bronx in 2023 under pressure from New York officials and judges. For one thing, on top of the $60 million he reportedly received in that deal, Trump will pocket $115 million thanks to a provision that was triggered when Bally’s was awarded a license to build a casino on the site in December.
Meanwhile, operating profits at ten Trump clubs in the U.S. rose from $19 million in 2020, at the end of his first term as president, to $66 million in 2024, according to Forbes estimates. And new Trump-branded courses are under construction in Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam, as well as Indonesia, where he will have resorts on both Bali and Java. (In a standard deal, he collects hefty licensing fees at the outset, long before the courses even open, and then continues to receive residuals for years to come.)
But the ventures are both business and pleasure for the president, an avid golfer who played an estimated 261 rounds during his first term in office, according to the Washington Post, and whose travel and security expenses during his second term have already cost taxpayers more than $100 million, according to the Huffington Post.
Here is a scorecard of Trump’s 15 current golf courses.
