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A third of the size of Manhattan, Kharg Island could be taken over quickly and serve as crucial leverage in the campaign to get Tehran to end its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz.
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Trump has ruled out troops there for the time being — “I’m not putting troops anywhere,” he said earlier this week — but he has ordered Marines to head to the region. They include the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit from Japan, with more than 2,000 troops.
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The administration is also sending the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, which left its home port of San Diego on its way to the Middle East, according to another person familiar with the matter. Led by the USS Boxer, it has up to 2,500 Marines along with F-35B fighters.
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One person familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations, said the deployments were part of a broader multi-week strategy to reopen the strait amid concerns that elevated oil prices will drag on global growth.
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Higher gas prices are also a challenge to Trump before the midterm elections. Retail gasoline and diesel prices in the US have jumped to the highest levels since 2022, with California’s energy regulator already warning against price gouging as some gas stations are charging as much as $8 a gallon.
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The Pentagon has asked for an additional $200 billion from Congress to pay for the war, further signaling that the administration is bracing for a more protracted conflict. The regime in Tehran isn’t close to falling and Iranian officials are coalescing around the remaining leaders, according to western intelligence assessments and people familiar with the matter.
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If the US does move to seize Kharg Island, there is plenty of precedent. In the US raid in Venezuela to capture Nicolas Maduro, troops arrived and left quickly, without loss of life. Special forces teams have operated around the world in secret for decades — with the mission that captured Osama bin Laden among the most famous.
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“I think that it is a possibility,” said John Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser who later broke with the president, in an interview. “I don’t think anybody — certainly not Trump — is talking about a huge combat, armed invasion — infantry, armor, artillery — landing in division-size formations.”
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The concern is that regardless of Trump’s intentions, the missions could expand like conflicts in the past, from Vietnam and Afghanistan to Iraq. They, too, started out as a small, limited campaigns, but turned into sprawling wars that bogged down the US for years.
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A big question is how long the soldiers would stay — and whether they’d be exposed to attack — if Iran doesn’t back down. It would also fan concerns even more among Republicans and some Democrats that Trump was violating a key campaign promise: no new foreign wars.
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And while Trump retains strong support among his party, the involvement of ground troops could sour that goodwill. A Reuters/Ipsos survey said two-thirds of Americans think Trump will deploy ground troops, but 55% don’t support such a decision. Just seven percent would support a large-scale attack by the US.
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Officials — including the president — are worried that an assault on the island could ultimately prove counterproductive to their energy goals. Some fear that it would prompt Iran to destroy its own infrastructure there. Others think the move could trigger an even sharper surge in oil prices, even as the Trump administration struggles for policies to lower them.
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—With assistance from Nancy Cook, Courtney Subramanian, Magdalena Del Valle, Justin Sink, John Harney, Ben Holland and Kevin Whitelaw.
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(Updates with Trump remarks starting in second paragraph.)
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English (US)