Spike in gas prices over Iran strikes puts Trump on defense

A spike in energy prices due to the ongoing U.S. strikes on Iran has put the Trump administration on the defensive.

Low oil and gasoline prices have long been part of the White House’s pitch to voters.

Now that they’re on the rise, key officials have argued they are doing their best to bring them down, the jump will only be temporary and the hikes are worth a geopolitical win Iran.

“Rest assured — President Trump’s entire energy team, from the White House to the National Energy Dominance Council to Secretaries Wright and Bessent, have been planning for this, and they are all over it!” press secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote Thursday in a post on the social platform X.

Asked about prices during a press briefing on Wednesday, she said the administration is “wholeheartedly focused on keeping prices stable.”

“It is the president’s belief and his economic team’s belief that the economy continues to be very strong. It’s robust and will be able to weather any of the temporary impacts of Operation Epic Fury,” she added.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Fox News on Wednesday that what he described as a temporary bump was a “very small price to pay” for accomplishing the administration’s goals in Iran.

Trump himself dismissed worries about the rising prices, saying they would fall soon.

“I don’t have any concern about it,” he told Reuters on Thursday. “They’ll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit.”

But Reuters also reported that the Treasury Department is slated to announce more actions aimed at lowering energy prices. It did not specify what exactly these moves would be, but it said one potential effort involves the oil futures market.

Eager to take action, Trump announced earlier this week that he was ordering the government to provide risk insurance to ships navigating the now-dangerous waters around Iran.

He also said that the U.S. Navy would escort oil tankers “if necessary.”

Wright told Fox Wednesday that companies had not yet taken up the administration on its escort offer.

Iran is close to the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil channel. The equivalent of about 20 percent of the world’s oil consumption typically flows through the strait on a daily basis, but that has come to a halt amid the conflict.

On Thursday, the average U.S. gasoline price was $3.25 per gallon, up nearly 27 cents from a week ago and 36 cents from a month ago.

Oil prices were also up. International benchmark Brent crude was trading at more than $84 per barrel, up from about $71 per barrel a week prior.

In their defense of the moves, administration officials have particularly pointed to high U.S. oil production and the seizure of Venezuelan oil. However, analysts told The Hill this week that these factors will not make much of a difference.

“Oil producers probably aren’t going to make decisions for next month based on one day of developments. They’re probably going to watch the situation very carefully. But no, there’s — there’s not really any big offset here,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told The Hill on Monday.

He added that Venezuela would need “years of investment” before it could offset Iran.

Trump and Republicans frequently lambasted the Biden administration after gas prices rose in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While prices today are not nearly as high as their peak of more than $5 per gallon in 2022, their rise comes during an administration that has pledged to lower energy costs.

The White House in recent months has leaned into low gas prices, especially with electricity prices on the rise, to argue that the administration is making energy more affordable.

For the time being, the Iran-related spike is hindering their ability to make that case, with the midterms just months away.

Politico reported Thursday that the White House is putting pressure on key officials to find ways to lower gas prices. An energy executive told the outlet that Wright and other advisers “are getting screamed at to find some good news.”

Leavitt described the report as “sensationalist, unverified gossip.”

Asked if the Trump administration could do anything to mitigate price impacts of the conflict, Andrew Lipow, president of Lipow Oil Associates, suggested that it could tap the strategic oil reserve.

“One thing that I would expect is, if the supply disruption goes on for a period of time, the United States, the European Union, and other countries around the world” could dip into their strategic reserves, he said Monday. 

Experts also told The Hill this week that they expect prices to calm down by the time November’s elections roll around. 

De Haan said prices “will have a lot of downward pressure ahead of the midterms, just because gas prices go up in the spring and they fall in the fall.”

Typically, summertime has the highest gasoline prices as people take road trips and demand is high.

“It might be a little bit of a stretch to think that prices would still be impacted or be high in the fall, because the natural direction is downward,” De Haan said.

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