Sign up for the Surge, the newsletter that covers most important political nonsense of the week, delivered to your inbox every Saturday.

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Surge, Slate’s politics newsletter, which is about to crack this Strait of Hormuz thing any day now.

Once again, the “haters” spent all week talking about the biggest war in the Middle East in decades and how it’s destabilizing countries everywhere. As if there’s not anything more important, such as a beautiful new ballroom under construction in Washington, to discuss. Elsewhere, we look at a delightfully spicy confirmation hearing this week, Illinois primary results, and the president’s announcement of a member of Congress’ imminent death.

But first, those who bet on Polymarket that the Surge would return to a conceptual lead item on March 21 can collect their winnings.

Since when does war have destabilizing consequences?

We would describe the administration’s attitude this week toward its war on Iran as one of frustration. Oil tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz is still at a trickle due to Iranian threats, and President Donald Trump is lashing out at NATO countries for refusing to offer much help in securing the passage. Our big, beautiful barrel of oil price has exploded since the war began and touched $120 per big, beautiful barrel this week, before slightly retreating. Gas prices in the U.S. are at four-year highs. That’s not the only energy disruption: Israel struck a major Iranian gas field, and Iran responded by retaliating against energy infrastructure in Israel and the Gulf states. An Iranian attack on a Qatari liquefied natural-gas facility, which Qatar says will take years to repair, further rattled markets.

The administration’s response has been that everything is going precisely as planned—ahead of schedule, even!—while furiously brainstorming behind the scenes to reassure crude markets not to panic. Some of these efforts are contradictory. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, for example, said the department will combat rising energy prices during its war on Iran by … removing sanctions on Iranian oil. Another drawdown of the already diminished Strategic Petroleum Reserve could be on tap. Then there’s the possibility that Trump will send troops to take over Kharg Island, where most of Iran’s oil exports are processed, to apply more pressure to the regime. That would mark a rather serious escalation, and it’s not clear that it would have the intended effect of choking off Iran’s oil revenue anyway, or allowing the U.S. to safely reopen the strait. We don’t yet want to say that the situation has spiraled out of control, but the spiral could be only a couple of headstrong choices away.

The administration, which is waging a Middle East war that it did not consult Congress about, and did not spend a second selling to the American people before launching, is reportedly preparing to ask Congress for........

© Slate