George W. Bush’s war haunts Donald Trump, who is now calling the Iranian operation a “little excursion”. But Iran differs from Iraq in one significant way: Bush spent years fending off accusations that he had invaded for oil, whereas Trump wholeheartedly embraces the idea. In fact, he doesn’t even need to invade a country to get oil flowing. 

“I will not allow a terrorist regime to hold the world hostage and attempt to stop the globe’s oil supply,” he said. “And if Iran does anything to do that, they’ll get hit at a much, much harder level,” he said at his golf club in Miami, Florida, last night. As well as declaring that the war is “very complete, pretty much,” Trump explained that he is “thinking about” taking over the Strait of Hormuz and using the US Navy to protect shipping. The Strait – through which a quarter of the world’s oil moves – is effectively closed after Iran threatened to sink passing vessels.

Trump’s words, spoken just before markets closed, were oil on troubled waters. US stocks immediately regained their earlier losses while oil futures, which had........

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