Did Iranian officials say they would release audio of President Donald Trump begging them to open the Strait of Hormuz so gas prices will go down before the midterms? No, that's not true: This story originated from The Halfway Post, an account which says their content is "Halfway true comedy and satire for your doomscrolling". A search of both Google News and Yahoo News did not return any relevant results matching the claim.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by the @StraitReport account on X on Oct. 8, 2026. It read:
BREAKING: Iranian officials say they will soon release the audio of several voicemails Donald Trump left them in which he begs, threatens, attempts to bribe, and finally cries for them to open up the Strait of Hormuz so gas prices will go down before Americans vote on November 3.
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @StraitReport on X.)
While a retweet would have shown the satirical source account, copying the text word for word obscured that origin. Lead Stories' web searches on Yahoo News (archived here) and Google News (archived here) returned no relevant news results using the phrase 'Iranian officials will release audio of Donald Trump begging them to open the Strait of Hormuz so gas prices will go down before the midterms'. However a broad internet search with Google (archived here) for the exact text of the post returned results pointing to the post on other Halfway Post accounts: on Threads, Substack, and the original Oct. 7, 2026, post on X (archived here) embedded below:
BREAKING: Iranian officials say they will soon release the audio of several voicemails Donald Trump left them in which he begs, threatens, attempts to bribe, and finally cries for them to open up the Strait of Hormuz so gas prices will go down before Americans vote on November 3.
-- The Halfway Post (@HalfwayPost) October 7, 2026
The bio of the @HalfwayPost account on X (archived here) has a clear disclaimer (pictured below) that reads:
Dadaist graffiti news. Halfway true comedy and satire for your doomscrolling by @DashMacIntyre. I don't report the facts, I improve them.
(Image source: @HalfwayPost bio on X.)
Lead Stories has covered several claims from The Halfway Post in the past -- read more about Lead Stories' satire policy here.
