Here are examples of Fox highlighting the importance of the Strait of Hormuz during the Obama administration (via Nexis transcripts): 

• Then-correspondent Leland Vittert: “Iran's navy proudly showed off anti-ship missiles and mines, the same weapons that would be used to disrupt shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. A 25-mile wide sea channel that cuts between Iran and United Arab Emirates through which a fifth of the world's oil flows. ”No oil will be transported through the strait," threatened Iran's deputy head of the Commission for Foreign Affairs. “No matter by the tankers or the merchant ships,” he continued. Since the 1980s, Iran has used the strait as a strategic trump card against U.S. or western military attack." [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 1/1/13] 
• Then-correspondent Jim Angle: “Of course, the price of oil itself affects the price at the pump, and that price has been rising in part because of concerns about Iran, which overlooks the Strait of Hormuz through which oil tankers flow.” [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 2/18/13]
• Then-host Greta Van Susteren: "Even if you just shut down the Strait of Hormuz for a short period of time, I realize as we know it's not a huge number of ships they're doing but just a short time that can have an impact. But when you start playing head games, what happens is that others play head games back and all of a sudden everything gets escalated." [Fox News, Fox on the Record with Greta van Susteren, 4/8/15]
• Then-correspondent Lea Gabrielle: “The Iranians are already allegedly backing these Houthi rebels who have toppled the Yemeni government and taken control of key parts of the country. Well, if you look at a map, you'll see it seems like Iran is trying to gain influence near two key waterways that over 30% of the world's seaboard and traded oil travels through. Now, Iran has already caused problems and threatened to shut down the Strait of Hormuz off its own coast in recent years. If the rebels receive weapons believed to be on the Iranian ships, they could potentially cause problems in the Bab al Mendeb Strait off Yemen's coast and severely disrupt global oil supply.” [Fox News, Hannity, 4/21/15] 
• Then-Fox Business anchor Melissa Francis: “So what is the proper response to something like this? I mean I've been [on] an aircraft carrier in the Strait of Hormuz. It's a very small area. You know, you see Iranians coming out and everybody sort of checking each other out in this little territory. This is very provocative for people who haven't seen it or been there. What's the proper response?” Former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) replied: “Well, I think we have to do a show of force back. You know, at one point in the last few months we didn't have aircraft carrier there during a switch out. I think we need to have a strong naval presence. Make it very clear to Iran that they will not toy with us, if they will, not mess with the commerce that goes through the Strait, which is very important.” [Fox News, Fox on the Record with Greta van Susteren, 12/30/15] 
• Then-anchor Chris Wallace: “An Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander tells state media they will close the Strait of Hormuz to the U.S. and its allies if they threaten the Islamic republic. The warning follows a long history of tension between the U.S. and Iran over the narrow strait through which nearly one- third of oil traded by sea passes.” [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 5/4/16] 
• Correspondent Jennifer Griffin: "A senior Revolutionary Guard commander has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz where one-third of the world's oil exports pass each day." [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 5/6/16] 
• Analyst Juan Williams: “This video that you see right now is of yet another incident overseas involving Iran and one of our ships. Four Iranian revolutionary guard vessels harassed our destroyer, the USS Nitze yesterday near the Strait of Hormuz conducting a high speed intersect closing within a short distance. Our destroyer was conducting a routine transit in the vicinity of the internationally recognized strait.” Then-host Eric Bolling replied: “Blow them out of the water. Get rid of them. That's the Strait of Hormuz right there. That is one of the most prolific oil-shipping channels. It may be the most prolific shipping channel in the world along with the Suez Canal. They start playing around like that. This has happened before. They've actually mined the Strait of Hormuz threatening the U.S. warships, our aircraft carriers and destroyers telling us that they were going to blow it up. It's time.” [Fox News, The Five, 8/24/16] 

Fox figures and guests claimed the Trump administration would respond strongly if Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz

• Guest Jonathan Schanzer: “This is an administration that is not going to put up with threats of closing the Strait or Hormuz, for example, which is something that Iran has alluded to in recent weeks.” [Fox News, The Journal Editorial Report, 7/28/18] 
• Fox News senior strategic analyst and retired Army Gen. Jack Keane: “If they block the Strait of Hormuz, we will take out literally all that military on the Strait of Hormuz. That's an act of war if they pull a stunt like that and they know what the results of that will be.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 8/10/18]

Fox figures and guests recognized the worldwide consequences of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz

• Kingsview asset management chief investment officer Scott Martin: “We still have millions of barrels of oil per day tied to the Strait of Hormuz. So if there's any instability there, that obviously is pushing up price.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 6/13/19]
• Washington Free Beacon editor Matthew Continetti on Iran’s 2019 threat to shut down the Strait of Hormuz: “This is about more than the nuclear deal. It's about the free flow of navigation and commerce and, more important, energy through that Strait of Hormuz. The global economy dependent on the goods and energy that flows through there.” [Fox News, Special Report With Bret Baier, 6/17/19]
• Fox contributor Jason Riley: “Around 30% of the world's oil passes through that strait, and if Iran is doing things like this, shooting down U.S. drones in international space, they cannot get away with that behavior.” [Fox News, Special Report With Bret Baier, 6/21/19]
• Cavuto: “I'm just wondering where it goes. If they're not going to retreat, in fact, they're going to be bold as brass now to show the world exactly what they're up to, and they're the ones doing it, and maybe to put the fear of God into those shipping along the Strait of Hormuz, as if that's exclusively Iranian waters, it could have a chilling effect. Other shippers maybe think of going opposite routes or not going in the strait at all. Then it escalates.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 7/22/19]

Fox figures and guests acknowledged the worldwide consequences of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz

• Sean Hannity claimed that Biden’s energy policies forced the U.S. to be dependent on the Strait of Hormuz, “where Iran plays a lot of games with the world's oil supply,” noting that “a third of” that oil “comes through there.” [Fox News, Hannity, 9/24/21] 
• Hannity claimed that Trump’s policy of energy independence would “be good for national security,” including because the U.S. “wouldn’t have to care about the Straits of Hormuz. We wouldn't get dragged into a conflict there.” [Fox News, Hannity, 3/3/22] 
• Bret Baier: “Iran holding annual military drills today in the Gulf of Oman, located near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, which is crucial to global energy supplies.” [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 12/30/22] 
• Fox contributor Phil Flynn: The Strait of Hormuz is “the world's most important oil choke point. And if that ever gets shut down, we're talking about 22% of the daily petroleum supplies that go from place to place could be taken off of the market.” He continued, “If that happens and you have no oil to replace it, it could set the stage for a major price spike and really the danger of an economic shock is high.” [Fox News, Your World with Neil Cavuto, 7/5/23]

Fox figures and guests insisted it would be difficult or unlikely for Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz

• Retired Army Col. Derek Harvey claimed that “it would be very difficult” for Iran to “go after the Straits of Hormuz” because “China is relying on getting a lot of tankers out of the Persian Gulf right now. They're all queued up, and they rely on oil, not just from Iran, but from the other countries in the region.” [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 6/22/25]
• On America Reports, Fox Business host Brian Brenberg: “We've been talking about the threat of Iran maybe going after the Strait of Hormuz. As oil ticks down, what it's telling you is the folks who monetarily have the biggest stake in the game in oil are saying we don't think Iran’s going to do that in any meaningful way.” [Fox News, America Reports, 6/23/25]
• On The Five, Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany claimed that “China cannot allow the Strait of Hormuz to close” because “38% of oil that went through the Strait of Hormuz went to China.” Co-host Harold Ford Jr. said of Iran: “They would hurt their own economy.” [Fox News, The Five, 6/23/25]
• On The Ingraham Angle, retired Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery proclaimed: “I think the insurance companies and the major shipping companies know that very rapidly the U.S. could reopen that strait and impose costs on Iran to prevent them from doing it again.” Host Laura Ingraham questioned if the idea that Iran would shut down the Strait of Hormuz was “just pie-in-the-sky thinking.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 6/23/25]
• Fox Business host Dagen McDowell insisted Iran “would never close” the Strait of Hormuz: “It would never, Iran. I say never. I mean, if it's cornered, you don't know what the regime will do. But why would it cut off its main source of money and hurt its biggest oil customer?” Fox News host Ainsley Earhardt said, “It would be financial suicide.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 6/24/25]

Fox figures and guests recognized the worldwide consequences of Iran closing the Strait of Hormuz

• On The Story with Martha MacCallum, Robert Maginnis noted that Iran has “6,000 mines that could block out the Strait of Hormuz, of which 30% of the world's oil flows through there on a daily basis. Those factors are key.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 6/19/25]
• Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt: “If Iran blocks that vital waterway, oil prices will likely soar, as roughly 20% of all of the oil world's trade passes through that strait.” Fox Business host Jackie DeAngelis added, “This is a very vital waterway when it comes to oil and gas and natural gas, 20% of the world's supply flows through. Very important for the United States, but also very important for Iran.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 6/23/25] 
• Fox’s Jackie DeAngelis: “We have heard Iran threaten to disrupt the Strait of Hormuz before but it’s actually never been completely shut down even with previous Middle East conflicts, so this would be an unprecedented move if they decide to do that.” She added, “Roughly 20% of the world's oil and gas travel through the strait. It’s important, but also remember that we're well supplied at home. Oil demand hasn't been seasonally as robust as it usually is. So a short disruption could potentially be manageable. A worst case scenario, however, could send oil prices up to $120 a barrel, that’s according to JPMorgan. But we’re watching these prices right now. Still under 75.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 6/23/25]
• Sunday Morning Futures host Maria Bartiromo asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio: “Do you expect Iran to move to close the Strait of Hormuz to try to disrupt oil transportation across the world?” Rubio responded: “It's economic suicide for them if they do it. And we retain options to deal with that. But other countries should be looking at that as well. It would hurt other countries' economies a lot worse than ours. It would be, I think, a massive escalation that would merit a response, not just by us but from others.” [Fox News, Sunday Morning Futures, 6/22/25]
• Jesse Watters said that if Iran were to “shut down the oil flowing through the strait,” it would be “economic suicide, it would crater their own economy and choke out their biggest customer, China.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 6/23/25]
• Fox News contributor Johnny “Joey” Jones: “Iran has a navy, it’s pretty small, and it’s really geared toward laying mines in somewhere like the Strait of Hormuz. We have geared our navy towards demining specifically.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 6/24/25]
• National Review senior writer Noah Rothman said the U.S. military presence in the region was “a deterrent force” to “prevent Iran from doing something stupid like closing the Strait of Hormuz.” [Fox News, The Will Cain Show, 6/24/25]
• On Fox News, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said: “Iran has talked repeatedly about closing the Straits of Hormuz for 40 years. It’s never effectively been closed. I mean, they could throw mines out there. They could shoot missiles, but think about this — all of their oil exports go through the Strait of Hormuz.” He added, “We don't count in any meaningful way on oil coming out of that strait. Look, Iran would harm itself more than it would harm anyone else. It’ll probably cause a mess or trouble but it will be small.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 6/24/25]
• Bret Baier: “It's like three-dimensional chess as the Middle East and the concern about the Strait of Hormuz. There is a way here that Russia benefits from all of this chaos and possibly gets even more money during this time.” Fox contributor Robert Wolf replied: “We know that the biggest beneficiary of the closing of the Strait of Hormuz would be Russia because they use the Pacific Ocean and the Suez Canal to transport their oil.” [Fox News, Special Report with Bret Baier, 7/1/25]
• Discussing U.S. relations with China, Hoover Institution senior fellow Victor Davis Hanson said: “We even keep the sea lanes open for them in the Persian Gulf and Straits of Hormuz. We saw that with the Iran strike. All of a sudden, Iran said they were going to close the Straits of Hormuz and China said please don't, but the adjudicator of that was the U.S. Navy.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 8/4/25]

Before the war, Fox figures and guests urging Trump to strike Iran “utterly ignored” that Iran could respond by closing the Strait of Hormuz; when it became clear during the war that Iran had blocked the strait, Fox News insisted it must be open and out of Iran’s control when the conflict ended — and even urged oil tankers to sail through despite the dangers.

• Fox & Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade told oil tankers to go through the Strait of Hormuz: “Show some guts and go through that strait and do it.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/9/26]
• Fox News personalities ignored the possibility that Iran could close the Strait of Hormuz as they urged Trump to attack Iran. “It’s little wonder that President Donald Trump didn't seem to worry about the Strait of Hormuz in planning his war of choice against Iran: His Fox News advisers utterly ignored the possibility that Iran could respond by closing that critical shipping lane as they urged the president to launch the attack last month. ... While closing the strait in response to hostilities is a well-known aspect of Iranian strategic doctrine, the Trump administration apparently did not plan for it in the lead-up to the February 28 attacks. ... Trump’s Fox News Cabinet, in the weeks leading up to the attack they urged him to launch, largely did not clue the president in to the risks posed by Iran closing the straits in response." [Media Matters, 3/13/26]
• Laura Ingraham said there is an “absolute essential nature of securing safe passage through the Strait.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 3/23/26]
• Fox guest Jim Hanson said Iran’s “ability to control the Strait of Hormuz still exists, so we’re going to have to find a lever there, and that may be the sticking point.” Host Will Cain replied, “Right, so the big one seems to be opening up the Strait of Hormuz.” [Fox News, The Will Cain Show, 3/25/26]
• Fox News host Brian Kilmeade: “The bottom line is when this ends, Iran cannot be in control” of the Strait of Hormuz. He added that it “would be an ongoing display of power” if Iran remained in control and was able to close it again. [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 3/30/26]

Some on Fox News criticized the memorandum of understanding with Iran — signed even according to the network to re-open the strait — saying that the war had backfired and left Iran with too much control of the strait

• Fox News guest Rebeccah Heinrichs said that Iran's ability to enact fees included in the June memorandum of understanding gives the country “coercive control over the Strait of Hormuz.” She added: “The Iranians will say they just want to collect environmental tolls. They are not going to call it tolls, they'll call it fees. That's tolls. Brian, that's worse than before Epic Fury.” [Fox News, Fox & Friends, 6/17/26]
• Fox News host Dana Perino acknowledged that the war had endowed Iran with the power to close the Strait of Hormuz, “which is leverage that Iran didn’t have before hostilities.” Her guest, former NATO ambassador Kurt Volker, added: “We're winding this down but we have Iran now emboldened to exercise some kind of control over the Strait of Hormuz.” [Fox News, America’s Newsroom, 6/17/26]
• On Fox News, Ben Shapiro complained that the memorandum of understanding lacked “a permanent opening of the Strait of Hormuz toll free,” calling it “a disaster.” [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 6/17/26]
• Kilmeade expressed concerns about potential fees in the strait: “A fee for strait services on international waters? I mean, if we agree to that, that's going to change global commerce.” [Fox News, The Ingraham Angle, 6/17/26]
• Will Cain: “As part of this MOU, the U.S. will lift its naval blockade, Iran reopens the strait of Hormuz. This appears to be the primary motivation of President Trump and the United States, to get the price of oil down – it is down – to get the world economy flowing.” [Fox News, The Will Cain Show, 6/17/26]
• Fox Business' Lauren Simonetti acknowledged that it's a “possibility” that Iran could toll the strait. [Fox News, The Story with Martha MacCallum, 6/18/26]