President Trump’s inauguration has Iran’s terrorist proxy in Yemen running scared. Hours before Trump took the oath of office, the Houthis (or “Ansar Allah”) announced that their Red Sea piracy would no longer target American or British vessels, but only those associated with the state of Israel. Unimpressed by this last-minute concession, Trump ordered the State Department to redesignate the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO) anyway.

Earlier this month, the Houthis told global shipping corporations via email that they would limit their piracy attacks to vessels they consider to be linked to the nation Israel (more on that in just a moment).

This unilateral de-escalation shows that Houthi leaders have no desire to become the next smoldering crater. They likely remember Trump’s first administration, when he dropped the “Mother of All Bombs” on ISIS or when he eliminated Iranian General Qasem Soleimani in an airstrike.

But global shipping companies may not be convinced so easily. Most shipping companies — with the notable exception of Chinese vessels that the Houthis don’t touch — no longer consider the Red Sea shipping lane to be safe, and they have rerouted their freighters the long way around Africa, causing a 50% drop in Red Sea traffic. Better to raise transport costs by 10% or 20% than to run the risk of your ships being captured and your crews being held as hostages. The Houthis’ caveat that they could resume wider assaults at some later point surely does not reassure cargo companies.

Since the October 7 attacks, the Houthis have attacked civilian freighters traveling in the Red Sea shipping lane, which passes through Yemeni waters, more than 100 times, according to Trump’s executive order. Fortunately, due to American and British navy patrols, the Houthis have only captured one ship and sunk two, with only four sailors killed amid all the action. These may truly be the worst — or most overmatched — pirates to roam the world’s waterways since Captain Jack Sparrow.

A June 2024 Associated Press report from aboard the U.S.S. Laboon documented “the most intense running sea battle the Navy has faced since World War II,” as American sailors had to respond to “near-daily” attacks from the Houthis. “Its sailors sometimes have seconds to confirm a launch by the Houthis, confer with other ships, and open fire on an incoming missile barrage that can move near or beyond the speed of sound,” the AP recorded.

“I don’t think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we’re doing and how under threat the ships continue to be. We only have to get it wrong once. The Houthis just have to get one through,” said the Laboon’s Cmdr. Eric Blomberg. “It is every single day, every single watch, and some of our ships have been out here for seven-plus months doing that,” said guided missile destroyer commodore Capt. David Wroe.

Given the scale and duration of the conflict, and their continued targeting of Israeli vessels, the Houthis’ Sunday declaration did not appease President Trump, who ordered the State Department to redesignate them as an FTO amid his post-inaugural blitz of orders. “The Houthis’ activities threaten the security of American civilians and personnel in the Middle East, the safety of our closest regional partners, and the stability of global maritime trade,” the president declared. The order also listed the Houthis’ close ties to Iran, illegitimate seizure of Yemeni population centers, and terror attacks against civilian infrastructure in other Arab nations.

The executive order also directed the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to review all foreign aid to Yemen and identify any pro-Houthi recipients.

Designating the Houthis as an FTO “gives the United States government … more optionality,” Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.) explained on “Washington Watch” Thursday. “Whether it’s [to use] literally preemptive kinetic force against a terror organization, [or] to ramp up sanctions, to cut the flow of financial resources [to the] organization, it just gives, again, more tools in the tool chest that allows us to ultimately destroy these organizations.”

In February 2021, the Biden administration removed the Houthis’ FTO designation and its Specially Designated Global Terrorist as an overture in its failed diplomacy with Iran. It then largely ignored (or concealed) the ongoing naval conflict with the Houthis. “I’m the first president in this century to report to the American people that the United States is not at war anywhere in the world,” Biden claimed in July 2024. Meanwhile, U.S. Navy personnel were “wondering why the Navy doesn’t strike harder against the Houthis,” according to the AP.

“I couldn’t be more pleased,” responded Daines. “It’s been a flurry of activity with President Trump out in front [with] all these executive orders.”

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baqaei was less pleased. “Such unilateral, arbitrary, and unfounded actions only serve to further undermine the rule of law in international relations and pose a serious threat to regional peace and stability,” he complained Thursday. Sometimes, you can tell a course of action is the right one if it makes the right people angry.

Meanwhile, the Houthis have left all the saber-rattling to their state sponsor. On Wednesday, the Houthis took yet another conciliatory move by releasing the multi-national crew of the Galaxy Leader, a cargo ship they seized in November 2023. The ship is owned by a British company, operated by a Japanese company, and flies under a Bahamas flag, but the Houthis considered it a legitimate target because an Israeli businessman holds part ownership in the vessel. Since its capture, the Houthis have held the vessel as a male-only tourist attraction. The crew’s release was negotiated by Oman and ostensibly coordinated with the Israel-Hamas ceasefire.

Yet even this move did not conciliate the Trump administration. “We must not be distracted by this insufficient action by the Houthis,” the State Department responded. “The Houthis have still not released the MV Galaxy Leader itself, which is stolen property. … Within Yemen, the Houthis continue to round up and detain hundreds of local staff members of the UN, NGOs, and diplomatic missions under abysmal conditions. … The Houthis must permanently cease all attacks in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways without exception and immediately release all of the hundreds of detainees.”

“I’m really encouraged by [Trump] restoring the moral clarity that was so needed,” Daines declared. “Under the Biden and Harris administration, they were really handcuffing Israel. They didn’t know who the good guys were and the bad guys were.”

“Now, President Trump’s in office. There’s moral clarity with President Trump, [U.S. Secretary of State] Marco Rubio, Elise Stefanik our next U.N. ambassador. You’ve got Mike Huckabee soon to be the U.S. ambassador to Israel,” Daines added. “They understand what’s going on with Israel in the Middle East. And the path forward in the Middle East is, first and foremost, make sure that Israel is strengthened and protected. And second, to make sure we diminish the capabilities of our adversaries, which in this case add the Houthis to that list, as well as Hamas and Hezbollah as terror organizations.”

As the strongest but most distant Iranian terrorist proxy at war with Israel, the Houthis have become increasingly isolated. Israel signed a ceasefire with Hezbollah after decapitating their leadership and driving them north of the 2006 armistice line. Israel then also signed a ceasefire with Hamas, which involves six-weeks of prisoner exchanges. With Trump in the Oval Office and Israeli forces no longer distracted, the Houthis evidently feared what might be coming their way, and they chose to back off.

“This certainly sends a strong message to our ally Israel that we’re standing with them,” said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. “No equivocation here on that.”