US President Donald Trump has ordered the country's navy to “shoot and kill” any Iranian boats placing mines in the Strait of Hormuz, even as Iran announced that it has received its first revenue from tolls it imposed on ships passing through the strait. 

"I have ordered the United States Navy to shoot and kill any boat, small boats though they may be (Their naval ships are ALL, 159 of them, at the bottom of the sea!), that is putting mines in the waters of the Strait of Hormuz. There is to be no hesitation. 

"Additionally, our mine “sweepers” are clearing the Strait right now. I am hereby ordering that activity to continue, but at a tripled up level!," he said in a Truth Social post.

In another post, Trump said Iran doesn't know who its leaders are. "Iran is having a very hard time figuring out who their leader is! They just don’t know! The infighting is between the “Hardliners,” who have been losing BADLY on the battlefield, and the “Moderates,” who are not very moderate at all (but gaining respect!), is CRAZY! We have total control over the Strait of Hormuz. 

"No ship can enter or leave without the approval of the United States Navy. It is “Sealed up Tight,” until such time as Iran is able to make a DEAL!!!" 

Meanwhile, Iran displayed its tightened grip over the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday with video of its commandos storming a huge cargo ship.

Iranian state television broadcast footage overnight of masked troops pulling up in a grey speedboat alongside the MSC Francesca, climbing a rope ladder to a shell door in the hull ‌and jumping through brandishing rifles.

The US navy, which has been blocking Iranian ships in international waters to enforce a blockade of its own, said it had boarded another tanker, the Majestic, in the Indian Ocean on Thursday, an apparent reference to a supertanker last reported off the coast of Sri Lanka carrying 2 million barrels of crude.

Iran's judiciary chief Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei said the merchant vessels Iran had seized had "faced the law", while Iranian speedboats and marine drones were sheltering in sea ​caves off an island keeping the US Navy from approaching.

The vice speaker of Iran's parliament, Hamidreza Hajibabaei, said the first revenue from a toll Iran was now collecting from ships using the strait had been transferred to the central bank. He gave no ​further details about who had paid it or how much, said a Reuters report.