Brian Shoratz, a Wall Street Journal reporter, writes that, according to a senior White House official, U.S. President Donald Trump did not meet with his advisers about designating the Strait of Hormuz as U.S. territory, and while raising the issue in his speech on Friday in the state of New York, he was joking.

After making his remarks about the Strait of Hormuz, Mr. Trump laughed. He has previously spoken about the way the media interpreted his jokes.

In his Friday speech, the U.S. president noted that the United States effectively controls the Strait of Hormuz because no vessel can pass through it without the United States’ permission.