On April 21, 2026, several reports claimed Sen. Chris Murphy, D-CT, applauded news that Iranian ships had evaded a U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz — a key oil route cut off by the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran.
Per several screenshots and posts, Murphy wrote "awesome" on X in response to a report that 26 Iranian ships had managed to get through a U.S. blockade of the Strait.
While Murphy did write "awesome" in response to the report, he later said he meant it sarcastically and as a critique of what he referred to as Trump's "bungled mismanagement" of the war. As such, we rate this as a correct attribution but with added, necessary context.
On April 20, Murphy posted "awesome" while sharing another X post that was captioned: "At least 26 Iranian shadow fleet vessels bypass US blockade."
After conservative news media outlets reported criticism of him for seemingly applauding the Iranian ships, Murphy posted a clarification on April 21, writing:
Ok Twitter, I can't believe I need to clarify this but obviously Trump's bungled mismanagement of this war is not "awesome". As I have said a million times here, it's a disaster and he should end the war immediately. My tweet was something called "sarcasm".
The purpose of this fact check is to verify whether Murphy posted "awesome" on X in response to the report. He later claimed the post was sarcastic, though we are unable to verify his true intentions.
Murphy has been critical of the Iran war.
On April 21, the Pentagon denied the report alleging 26 Iranian ships evaded the U.S. blockade. The same day, the reputable Financial Times newspaper reported that at least 34 tankers with ties to Iran had bypassed the U.S. blockade since it began.
Snopes has covered numerous rumors regarding the Iran war.