‘WE’D LOVE TO DO IT A DIFFERENT WAY’: Almost as soon as he announced it, it became clear President Donald Trump’s idea of imposing a 20% reimbursement fee after the U.S. becomes the “Guardian of the Strait of Hormuz,” was unworkable, wildly unpopular with allies, likely illegal under internal maritime law, and inconsistent with everything the U.S. has said about freedom of navigation since the beginning of the Iran war four and a half months ago.“Calling ourselves ‘Guardians of the Strait’ sounds good on television, but freedom of navigation has always been a global public good, not a toll road — that’s the entire logic of centuries of maritime law,” retired Adm. James Stavridis, a former supreme NATO commander posted on X.At an Oval Office meeting with the Iraqi prime minister, Trump put the best face on it. He was not backing down, just accepting a better idea. “​I was called by different people, different countries, kings and emirs and all of the people that we all know and we all love,” Trump said, describing the blowback he received from Gulf allies. “And they said, “We’d love to do it a different way … We would like to invest tremendously in the United States as opposed to charging a fee.”