Rising More EVERY Day……
Trump’s jawboning follopwing Hegseth’s zeal to bomb Iran is NOT stopping the increases….
And IS worrying his fellow Republican’s….
“Most Americans think gasoline prices are going to rise in coming months following President Donald Trump’s decision to launch military strikes on Iran, and many expect a protracted conflict,” according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll.
“Some 67% of respondents in the four-day poll – including 44% of Republicans and 85% of Democrats – said they expect gas prices in the U.S. to get worse over the next year.”
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Two weeks later, his war with Iran threatens to undermine that pitch.
Oil prices Monday spiked to levels not seen since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, while prices at the pump jumped nearly 50 cents higher than a week ago. The price per barrel jumped to almost $120 at one point Monday before dropping to under $90 by the end of the day as Trump suggested the war with Iran could end soon. But the roller coaster still left some in his party anxious about the political and economic fallout, particularly as Iran has vowed to continue retaliatory strikes.
At a briefing Tuesday, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Iran’s mullahs are “desperate and scrambling” and it would be “our most intense day of strikes inside Iran.”
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The higher prices have intensified some Republicans’ warnings about the political risks of a drawn-out conflict as the Trump administration has issued conflicting messages about its plans. On Monday, Trump said at one point the war was nearly finished, then hours later told Republican lawmakers that he would press ahead in Iran seeking “ultimate victory that will end this long-running danger once and for all.”
“We have Only Just Begun to Fight,” the Department of War declared on social media Monday, just before Trump told CBS News that the war was “very complete.”
Even as the White House asserted the price hikes would be temporary, it became clear Monday that Trump sought to stem the political fallout. In a social media post late Monday, the president warned that Iran would be hit “TWENTY TIMES HARDER” if the country does anything to stop the flow of oil in the Strait of Hormuz….
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Trump has been dismissive of rising oil prices in recent days. Over the weekend, he wrote on social media that the higher oil costs were a “small price to pay” for safety, adding “ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!”
He drew some unusual rebukes from the right last week as he said he was unconcerned about higher gas prices. “If they rise, they rise,” he told Reuters, predicting a rapid drop “when this is over.”
Matt Walsh, a conservative influencer, soon told his more than 4 million followers on X that they “aren’t helping anything, least of all our chances in the midterms, by pretending that this is good messaging.”
Many Republicans are eager for the war to end quickly, and Trump’s latest comments boosted their hopes the gas price spike will be short-lived….
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EuroIntelligence: “In Donald Trump’s war with Iran, his most serious enemies aren’t Mojtaba Khamenei, or even the Revolutionary Guards. They are Brent and West Texas Intermediate. Absent of any genuine change in policy, the best way to interpret his statements yesterday about the war effectively being over is as an attempt to talk down the oil prices.”
“This might work for a few hours, or even days if Trump is lucky. But if the strait of Hormuz remains blocked, then the basic problem persists.”
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Paul Krugman: “Donald Trump talked a lot of nonsense about energy during the 2024 campaign. But in fairness, some of the underlying premises behind ‘drill, baby, drill’ were accepted by many people. At the very least, it was widely presumed that U.S. self-sufficiency in oil would protect America from disruptions in oil supplies overseas.”
“But that presumption was wrong. America produces a lot of oil, substantially more than we consume. Although we import some oil, mainly from Canada and Mexico, while exporting even more oil, mainly from Texas, we buy hardly any oil from the Persian Gulf. Yet the closure of the Strait of Hormuz has caused U.S. prices of oil products to soar. Self-sufficiency in oil has done nothing at all to insulate the U.S. economy from Middle East chaos.”
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