President Donald Trump on Sunday predicted that the current elevated gasoline prices could go higher or remain the same before the November midterm elections, after oil prices surged in the wake of the Iran conflict.
Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo asked Trump whether his newly announced blockade of the Strait of Hormuz would be enough to reopen the strait, which carries around a fifth of the world’s oil on a regular day—as well as lower prices.
“Well, it’s eventually going to be lower,” Trump said. “No, it might not happen initially, but it’s going to go down.”
Trump added that America has “got to stop this country from having a nuclear weapon,” referring to the Iranian regime.
When asked whether the price of oil and gas will drop before the November elections, Trump responded by saying that prices could be higher.
“I think so. It could be. It could be. Or the same. Or maybe a little bit higher,” the president said. “But it should be around the same. I think this won’t be that much longer.”
A barrel of Brent crude oil dropped to $95 per barrel last week after remaining above $100 for the past several weeks. According to the American Automotive Association (AAA), the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline dropped around 1 cent to $4.12. The price was around $2.98 per gallon shortly before the war started on Feb. 28.
Over the weekend, Vice President JD Vance led a White House delegation in Pakistan to hold peace talks with the Iranian regime, days after Trump announced a two-week ceasefire. Vance and Iranian officials on Saturday said that the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement.
“We need to see an affirmative commitment that they will not seek a nuclear weapon, and they will not seek the tools that would enable them to quickly achieve a nuclear weapon,” Vance said after talks ended.
Trump wrote on Truth Social that “the meeting went well, most points were agreed to, but the only point that really mattered, NUCLEAR, was not.”
He added that the U.S. military would implement a blockade of the strait and warned that it would launch more strikes on Iran if it didn’t allow safe passage through the strait.
“I have also instructed our Navy to seek and interdict every vessel in International Waters that has paid a toll to Iran,” he wrote.
“No one who pays an illegal toll will have safe passage on the high seas. We will also begin destroying the mines the Iranians laid in the Straits. Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard later claimed the strait remained under Iran’s “full control” and was open for non-military vessels, but military ones would be subject to a “forceful response,” two state-run Iranian news agencies reported.
The Revolutionary Guard also warned through state media and on social media platform X that no military vessels should enter the strait. It said on X that such actions would plunge the U.S. military and its allies “into a deadly whirlpool of destruction in the Strait.”