(FOX NEWS) — President Donald Trump is echoing Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s comments earlier this week that the U.S. military blockade on Iran oil shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has the force and effect of an “economic nuclear weapon.”

“The blockade is somewhat more effective than the bombing: They are choking like a stuffed pig,” Trump told Axios in an interview Wednesday. “And it is going to be worse for them.

“They can’t have a nuclear weapon.”

Iran ultimately wants “to settle” but Trump said that only happens with Iran giving up its nuclear weapons aspirations permanently.

“They don’t want me to keep the blockade; I don’t want to [lift the blockade], because I don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told Axios.

Iran’s oil storage and pipelines “are getting close to exploding,” he added.