Trump official squirms when pressed by reporter: 'I don’t know the definition of war'

Kevin Hassett, President Donald Trump’s top economic adviser, stammered Sunday when pressed on the U.S. war against Iran, telling CBS News’ Margaret Brennan that he didn’t fully comprehend the definition of the word “war.”

At the direction of Trump, the U.S. Navy is currently enforcing a blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway off the coast of Iran through which a fifth of the world’s oil trade flows. Brennan, who featured Hassett as a guest Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” asked bluntly whether he considered the United States to be at war.

“A blockade is an act of war. Are we at war with Iran?” Brennan asked, with a blockade being a textbook act of war under international law.

Initially, Hassett appeared to dodge the question.

“Iran shut down the straits and the only ones they were letting through were Iranian ships, and President Trump didn’t think that was acceptable,” Hassett said.

Brennan pressed Hassett further, asking definitively: “So we are still at war with Iran?”

Hassett stumbled through his words before ultimately questioning the definition of the word “war.”

“Uhh… you know, what – I… I don’t know what the definition of war is when we’re not shooting and we’re negotiating and they’re under a lot of pressure,” he said.

According to the humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières – French for “Doctors Without Borders” – a blockade is a clear act of war under international law, “namely, by the Declaration Respecting Maritime Law adopted in Paris on 16 April 1856 and by articles 1-21 of the Declaration Concerning the Laws of Naval War adopted on 26 February 1909 in London.”