Democrats see ‘missed opportunity' in Trump resisting Xi's Hormuz help

WASHINGTON - Some congressional Democrats say Donald Trump fumbled a chance to convince Chinese President Xi Jinping to intervene in the president's costly standoff with Iran over the Strait of Hormuz.

Foreign policy experts have fingered Beijing as one of the global capitals still allied with Iran, meaning the powerful Xi might have been helpful in convincing the new government in Tehran to allow commercial fuel and cargo ships to again traverse the waterway safely.

Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, an Armed Services Committee member, on Wednesday called Trump's denial of Xi's help a "missed opportunity."

"President [Barack] Obama engaged with China to get the Iran nuclear deal, and we should engage with China and our European allies to end the war in Iran and open the Strait of Hormuz. We need statesmanship, and the president missed an opportunity," Khanna said. "I think it's in both of our nations' interests to get the Strait of Hormuz opened. So he should have just had a conversation about what Xi thought it would take to get that achieved."

Khanna's assessment came after Trump on May 15 told reporters traveling back from his two-day Beijing summit that Xi had offered to help with the strait. Trump declined.

"I'm not asking for any favors. Because when you ask for favors, you have to do favors in return, and we don't need favors," Trump said on Air Force One when asked if Xi had offered to lend a hand to open the vital energy chokepoint.

One week after that revelation, Trump has shown no signs of reversing himself - while also painting a questionable picture about what has been happening off the Iranian coastline.

"We have total control of the Strait of Hormuz, as you know, with our blockade," Trump said Thursday during an event in the Oval Office, despite shipping firms being unable to insure their vessels stranded in Persian waters after threats from Iranian missile and drone attacks. "The blockade has been 100% effective. Nobody's been able to get through. It's like a steel wall, it's our Navy," Trump said.

The president denied reports that Iranian officials have been slapping hefty tolls in return for allowing a smaller-than-normal number of ships to traverse the strait. Trump also described his ongoing plan to use the U.S. naval blockade on ships leaving or unloading at Iranian ports to slowly choke the Tehran government economically until they open the strait.

"They're losing a lot of money," he told reporters. "There hasn't been a ship that's been able to get through without our approval, and the Navy has done an amazing job. And no ship is going to Iran, as you know, no ship is going to or out of Iran without our approval."

Still, Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., a member of the Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, said the "favor" denial was "interesting because the administration complains that other nations aren't doing enough, but if you want other nations to help, then you can't just stand back and complain when they don't."

"I get what the president's concern is, you know, that the price that China might extract for helping might not be a price he would want to pay," Kaine added. "But why not at least find out what the proposal is before you reject it out of hand? … It was not as big a topic at the summit as I thought might have been the case."

‘Temporary pain'

Kaine's assessment, notably, was not all criticism.

"The president might be of the belief that the closure of the strait imposes enough economic challenge on China that they'll take action for their own reasons, rather than because [Trump] asked him to, and in that case he doesn't have to give them a favor," he said.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., an Intelligence Committee member, said he was "not surprised" that Trump had rebuffed Xi, because "again and again, if you look at the history, Donald Trump passes on the effort to work with people, particularly on international trade. I mean, he consistently rejects overtures."

"I went to school on a basketball scholarship, dreaming of playing in the NBA, and I learned that sports was a team program and a team effort," Wyden said Wednesday. "It still is a team effort in areas like international trade. You've got to have partners."

Oil prices have soared and remained high since Trump and Israel launched the joint war with Iran, with multiple polls giving the president low marks over the conflict and gas prices. More than half (56%) of those polled in an April 15 Quinnipiac University survey opposed the Iran war, while 38% expressed support. On high gas prices, 55% of participants told Quinnipiac they blame Trump a lot, while 17% said they blame him some. On the flip side, 16% said they blame Trump not at all, while 11% said they blame him not much.

"What was promised to be temporary pain to fill up seems to hurt more as time passes," Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said in a summary of the poll's findings.

While pain at the pump has some Republicans worried heading into November's midterm elections, Senate Foreign Relations Committee member Bill Hagerty, R-Tenn., defended the commander in chief.

"He finally has had the wherewithal to step up and deal with this problem. Had he not dealt with it, the pace at which [Iranian officials] were producing ballistic missiles and drones would have exceeded our ability to take them out," Hagerty said Wednesday. "It's absolutely critical that we stepped up. I'm pleased to see that he did it."

Copyright 2026 Tribune Content Agency. All Rights Reserved.

This story was originally published May 22, 2026 at 1:18 PM.