{"id":5354,"date":"2026-08-28T13:41:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T13:41:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=5354"},"modified":"2026-08-28T13:41:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-28T13:41:48","slug":"trump-is-bringing-back-privateers-to-stop-smuggled-iranian-oil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/interstatelogisticshubs.com\/?p=5354","title":{"rendered":"Trump is bringing back privateers to stop smuggled Iranian oil"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Part of U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessant\u2019s Operation Economic Outcast, which he announced on August 24 and is meant to crash the Iranian economy, involves capturing, condemning, and selling tankers carrying illicit Iranian oil.<\/p>

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1\/x The Trump administration is moving to reestablish a 19th-C maritime institution that has fallen into disuse: the prize court, a special-purpose tribunal for speedily determining the legality of the seizure and forfeiture of an enemy merchant vessel. https:\/\/t.co\/ajNGRTfkkR<\/p>\r\n\u2014 Bart \ud83c\udf0a\u2693\ufe0f (@BartGonnissen) August 27, 2026<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

In a nod to the privateers and pirates of old, Trump plans to capture ships on the high seas transporting Iranian oil, then to sell them and put the proceeds into the U.S. Treasury. Trump is going old school on the high seas. We\u2019re going to party like it\u2019s 1776.<\/p>\n

For much of history, nations used privateers to harass and capture enemy shipping. Closely related to pirates, privateers were private ships or fleets the government commissioned through a \u201cletter of marque and reprisal.\u201d<\/p>\n

A privateer did not take orders from the government, though. He operated independently to capture enemy merchant ships. And while a pirate would keep all that he captured, the privateer would bring the captured ship and its cargo to a friendly port where \u201cprize courts\u201d would convene to legitimize the capture. Then, the privateer would sell the ship and its contents, with the proceeds split between the privateer and the government.<\/p>\n

Given that privateers essentially had to pay a hefty tax to the government, why didn\u2019t they just go the full pirate route? That\u2019s because of another important difference between pirates and privateers. Since all the European nations used privateers, practicality dictated that they gave enemy privateers greater rights than pirates. If an enemy government captured a privateer carrying a letter of marque and reprisal, the government would treat him as a prisoner of war. By contrast, if the enemy government captured a pirate, the government would hang him.<\/p>\n

To be accurate, the US isn\u2019t quite going back to issuing letters of marque to privateers\u2014though we could. Letters of marque are, after all, in the Constitution.<\/p>\n

Article I, Section 8, states that Congress has the power \u201cTo…grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water.\u201d Congress.gov explains that these Letters of Marque \u201cwhich are instruments that permit private citizens to seize enemy vessels and their cargos and crew.\u201d<\/p>\n

Soon after the Constitution\u2019s adoption, Congress passed the Prize Act, now codified at 10 U.S.C. \u00a7 8851 et. seq<\/em>., dictating how to handle captured \u201cprizes,\u201d whether the prizes came from privateers operating according to Letters of Marque or from the US Navy. It is still good law.<\/p>

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The Prize Act allows any US district court to act as a \u201cprize court.\u201d When a captured vessel and its cargo are brought into a US port, the court is directed to ensure that it is a legitimate prize taken \u201cduring war by authority of the United States or adopted and ratified by the President.\u201d If so, the court may condemn the prize and its cargo, order its sale, then deposit the proceeds in the U.S. Treasury.<\/p>\n

The Treasury\u2019s current plans for prize courts are not yet finalized. Moreover, the plans are likely to face legal challenges over whether the situation constitutes sufficient \u201cwar\u201d or hostilities to trigger prize jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

For a bit of naval history, the most famous privateer of history was Francis Drake, a man the British once revered:<\/p>\n

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In the 1570s English privateer Francis Drake led daring hit-and-run attacks on Spanish ports and ships in the Pacific capturing enormous wealth.\n\r\nTerrified of the bold red bearded menace the Spanish gave the son of a humble shoemaker the nickname \u201cEl Draque\u201d The Dragon. pic.twitter.com\/pCeS9pQQ45<\/p>\r\n\u2014 Scamander River\ud83c\udf0a (@immortalxanthos) May 27, 2026<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n

As this video shows, though, he\u2019s sunk in the world\u2019s estimation, becoming \u201ccontroversial,\u201d rather than a hero, in large part because he participated in the slave trade, a practice accepted across the world in the 16th century:<\/p>\n