US president Donald Trump on Monday suggested the United States could charge tolls for passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

Speaking with reporters, Trump was asked about Iran possibly charging tolls for ships to pass through the waterway.

“What about us charging tolls?” he asked in response.

“I’d rather do that then let them have them, right?” he added. “Why shouldn’t we? We’re the winner. We won, okay. They are militarily defeated. The only thing they have is the psychology of, oh, ‘we’re going to drop a couple of mines in the water.’ We’ have a concept where we will charge tolls,” Trump added in his comment.

If the U.S. were to implement tolls in the strait, it’s not immediately clear what its objective would be.

Trump has warned repeatedly that the US could strike power plants, bridges in Iran if Tehran fails to make a deal and in parallel reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

He has given today at 8 p.m. ET as the deadline for Iran to make a deal or suffer the widespread destruction of its infrastructure.

Strait of Hormuz part of the deal to end the conflict with Iran: Trump

Trump also told reporters yesterday in a press conference that part of the deal to end the conflict with Iran is the free passage through the Strait of Hormuz.

The US president explicitly threatened Iran’s energy infrastructure, if passage is not “fully” opened. The demand sharpened the focus on energy infrastructure as a pressure point in the conflict.

Trump said that in order to meet his deadline – set to end at 20:00 Tuesday – there needs to be a deal with Iran, adding that part of that deal is going to be free traffic of oil.

“We’re dealing with them; they have essentially until 8:00 tomorrow night eastern time. I think it’s going well. I can’t talk about ceasefire, but we have an active, willing participant on the other side,” Trump told reporters.

“They would like to make a deal. I can’t say anything more than that. We’re giving them until tomorrow, 8:00 eastern time, and after that they are going to have no bridges, they are going to have no power plants. We’ have to have a deal that’s acceptable to me. And part of that deal is going to mean we want free traffic of oil and everything else,” he said.

Some Iranian officials, including foreign minister Abbas Araghchi, have repeatedly said that the vital shipping lane is not closed, but it is closed only to “vessels belonging to or associated with the aggressor parties and those participating in their acts of aggression.”