Politics
A report stated that Trump announced in Dallas, at the Republican convention for the midterm elections, that the war with Iran would end “immediately after the midterm elections.”
midterm elections, that the war with Iran would end “immediately after the midterm elections.” Trump urged Americans to endure rising gasoline prices until the elections so that Iran would not be able to acquire nuclear weapons. Trump said: “Can Iran have nuclear weapons? Absolutely not. So that means I am right.”
According to Mark Zandi, the Iranian-American chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, the cost of the war had reached approximately $1,650 per American household as of last week. Of this amount, around $860 was attributed to higher energy prices, approximately $420 to borrowing costs, and about $370 to military expenditures. Zandi warned that this financial burden would continue to increase, forcing middle- and lower-income households to make difficult choices.
On Thursday, oil prices surpassed $107 per barrel, reaching their highest level since May. Gregory Brew, a senior analyst at the Eurasia Group, said the increase was partly driven by Trump’s statements indicating that the United States does not want to make progress on the Iran issue until after the elections. Major Banks, including HSBC, Goldman Sachs, and Bank of America, has raised their oil-price forecasts for 2027 to around $85 per barrel.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that only 31 percent of Americans support the war, while 83 percent believe that the war will continue for “a long time.” Republican strategist Brittany Martinez said it is difficult to “sell the message” that “the economic pain of the war is a short-term sacrifice for a greater good,” because that message does not correspond with the reality voters are experiencing in their daily lives.
Nevertheless, the White House has announced that Trump is committed to reducing energy costs and that, with full control of the Strait of Hormuz, prices will return to pre-conflict levels. [But it failed to explain how the Strait of Hormuz—which Trump has been unable to reopen even after seven months of intense warfare—would suddenly be reopened.
Pressure on the Strait of Hormuz has eased somewhat since Saudi Arabia extended a pipeline to the Red Sea. However, this route is now facing increasing attacks by Yemen’s Ansar Allah movement. On Tuesday, the Ansar Allah movement intensified its attacks on Saudi territory, targeting energy infrastructure. Meanwhile, America’s strategic oil reserves have fallen to their lowest level since the Ronald Reagan administration, leaving the government’s primary weapon for keeping fuel prices down with an empty magazine.
