Supposed Trump post touting 'Hormuz Peace Board' is fake
- Published on March 17, 2026 at 21:27
- 2 min read
- By Bill MCCARTHY
A purported Truth Social screenshot circulating online claims to show Donald Trump touting the creation of a so-called "Hormuz Peace Board" and blaming the war with Iran on his predecessors. But the apparent publication is a fake, the White House confirmed, and does not show up on the US president's accounts.
"This war was started by BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA and JOE BIDEN and we've been fighting it for over 47 years now! I'm putting an end to it because I am the Peace President!" reads the supposed Truth Social post from Trump, which circulated March 16, 2026.
"This week I will be creating the Hormuz Peace Board where our so called coward NATO allies are not welcome, many real allies have already expressed desire to join this once in a lifetime opportunity to secure the Hormuz for peace!"
The image spread across platforms including Facebook, Instagram and X -- and also in multiple languages, such as Spanish, Arabic and French.
The alleged screenshot comes as US allies in NATO, the Western political and military alliance, have largely rebuffed Trump's calls to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz to oil traffic.
Since US-Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader February 28 and plunged the Middle East into war, Tehran has targeted the energy facilities of crude-producing nations in the region while attacking tankers transiting the strait, all but closing the vital sea passage.
Trump has repeatedly championed himself the "president of peace" and in February held the inaugural meeting of his "Board of Peace," a body created to uphold the Gaza ceasefire that has morphed into a would-be United Nations featuring several authoritarians.
But the purported Truth Social post announcing the creation of a "Hormuz Peace Board" is fabricated.
"These are fake TRUTH posts," the White House told AFP in a March 17 email.
No such post appears on Trump's Truth Social page, nor on archives of his account. Factba.se, an interactive database tracking the president's public remarks and social media activity, has recorded no such post in its catalogue, either.
Keyword searches also turned up no credible news reports covering the alleged remarks.
In one authentic post referencing the Strait of Hormuz, Trump wrote on March 14: "The United States of America has beaten and completely decimated Iran, both Militarily, Economically, and in every other way, but the Countries of the World that receive Oil through the Hormuz Strait must take care of that passage, and we will help -- A LOT!"
Fabricated screenshots of Truth Social posts are a frequent source of disinformation about Trump.
AFP has debunked other misinformation about the Middle East war here.
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