President Donald Trump said Sunday that soaring gas prices could go “a little bit higher” before the midterm elections, signaling the Republican Party faces an uphill battle on economic messaging ahead of November.
Trump predicted that in the long term, energy costs will come down significantly when the United States finishes its war on Iran. In the meantime, gas costs could remain “the same, or maybe a little bit higher” ahead of the November midterm elections, the president said during an interview on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.
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“Eventually, it’s going to be lower. No, it might not happen initially, but it’s going to, it’s going to go down when this is all over,” Trump said. “I think this won’t be that much longer. They’re wiped out.”
Trump’s assessment comes as the Strait of Hormuz, which plays a key role in shaping gas prices, remains essentially closed due to the war with Iran, with the president revealing on Sunday morning that the U.S. will impose a naval blockade in the strategic waterway in an apparent attempt to force Iran to the negotiating table.
Trump conceded during the Fox News interview that the stock market has dropped and gas prices have risen amid the conflict, economic issues that have plagued Republicans campaigning during an election year. The president argued that the economic pain from the war is essential to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, a development he said would cause far greater long-term devastation.
“I gotta stop this country from having a nuclear weapon. You want to see a stock market go down? Let a couple of nuclear bombs be dropped on us, or, frankly, anyplace else, and then you’ll see a stock market that goes down,” he told Bartiromo.
“So the stock market has not gone down very much at all, gone down a little bit, much less than I thought. And frankly, the gas hasn’t gone up as much as I thought,” Trump added.
AAA said gas prices averaged $4.15 a gallon nationwide Friday, up from $2.98 before the Iran war began on Feb. 28. Other countries, particularly in Asia, have been hit far worse, as they are less energy independent than the U.S.
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Major oil chiefs have warned that “every day” the Strait of Hormuz remains closed marks a worsening of the global energy crisis. Trump said Sunday morning that Iran’s closure of the waterway amid the war has “caused anxiety, dislocation, and pain to many people and Countries throughout the World.” The president pressured the regime to open the strait, as energy prices continue to rise due to the inability of most oil and gas tankers to make their way through the channel.
“Iran promised to open the Strait of Hormuz, and they knowingly failed to do so,” Trump said in a post to Truth Social, referring to the two-week ceasefire Tehran and Washington reached on Tuesday. “As they promised, they better begin the process of getting this INTERNATIONAL WATERWAY OPEN AND FAST! Every Law in the book is being violated by them.”
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