WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s widening war in Iran is causing oil prices to fluctuate wildly, making fuel more expensive for consumers and businesses and threatening to cause a larger crisis in the global economy.
Oil spiked to as high as $119 a barrel on Monday, up from just about $70 before the war began. It then dropped back down to under $90. But Republicans on Capitol Hill are mostly urging Americans to ignore the seesaw and have patience, insisting the conflict won’t last long enough to seriously hurt consumers’ pocketbooks.
“I don’t know how anybody can be surprised. When you have a major conflict in the Middle East, prices always go up,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told HuffPost. “But it’s a delivery problem. The [oil] tankers can’t get through the Strait of Hormuz.”
“I really don’t expect this to last long enough to have an ultimate impact on gas prices,” he added.
Drivers may beg to differ. According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. has increased more than 21% in the last week, now averaging $3.47 per gallon. That’s far higher than when Trump delivered his State of the Union address to Congress two weeks ago, in which he claimed gas prices are “$2.30 a gallon in most states, and in some places $1.99 a gallon.”
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), an opponent of the war, predicted pain at the pump will lead to pain at the polls for the GOP.
“I think high oil prices will be a problem,” he said on FOX Business Network’s “Mornings With Maria” on Tuesday morning, noting the GOP is already facing a problem with the high cost of living.
Gas prices have been closely tied to Trump’s waffling over when the war will end, plummeting on Monday after Trump told CBS News he thinks “the war is very complete, very much.” But they jumped back up after Trump reversed himself a half-dozen times during a press conference at his golf resort in Florida, insisting at the same time that the war will end soon and that it will go on as long as it needs to until Iran agrees to unconditional surrender.
“We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough. We go forward more determined than ever to achieve ultimate victory that will end this long-running danger, once and for all,” Trump told reporters in Doral.
And he downplayed oil prices, saying he knew they would go up on account of what he called the Iran “excursion.”
“I knew oil prices would go up if I did this,” Trump said.
M. Scott Brauer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Part of the problem is that the Strait of Hormuz is experiencing a severe shipping crisis, with Iran effectively closing the major shipping lane. Saudi Aramco, the world’s largest exporter of oil, warned there will be “catastrophic consequences” if the Strait of Hormuz remains shut.
“It’s going to be probably volatile over a period of time,” Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said when asked about the price of gas. “But I think what’s going to be key is ensuring we can get safe access to the Strait of Hormuz. There’s about 20% of the world’s oil [that] goes through that, 80% [of which] goes primarily to Asian markets. So the president’s team is very aware of that.”
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) acknowledged that the pain at the pump could be problematic for the Trump administration.
“I know the White House is taking the increase in oil prices and gas prices very seriously, and, you know, that’s a good thing,” he said. “Obviously, that’s tough for people to bear over time, and so I’m sure they’ll have a plan for it.”
Democrats, meanwhile, blamed Trump’s handling of the war in Iran for causing even more economic pain for Americans, in addition to his tariffs on many consumer goods.
“When oil prices spike like this, it ripples across the entire economy,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a floor speech. “Airline tickets, shipping costs, everyday goods go up, up, up in price. Inflation was already on the rise, and Trump’s war just made it much, much worse.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), a potential 2028 presidential contender, mocked Trump for downplaying the rise in gas prices after launching a war in the oil-producing Middle East, citing Trump’s comments a day earlier in which he said that rising oil prices are a “small price to pay” and suggested that people concerned about them are “fools.”
“Taking a victory lap on ‘LOWEST EVER’ gas prices, then calling Americans ‘FOOLS’ for worrying about his war with Iran raising prices?” Newsom wrote in a post online. “Donald Trump is a con man with no plan and failing the American people.”