About 24 hours after unveiling “Project Freedom” in a bid to unplug the Strait of Hormuz and get maritime traffic flowing again, President Donald Trump pulled the plug on the mission Monday night.
Negotiations with Iran were going well, Trump asserted, and because other countries believed a suspension of the naval operation would further strengthen the diplomatic process, he decided the move was worth pursuing. The reversal was likely a bit awkward for Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who spent most of his morning press conference at the Pentagon explaining why Project Freedom was so necessary.
Why did the initiative collapse? And could it be brought back from the dead if negotiations bog down again?
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