President Donald Trump said Monday that former President Joe Biden is responsible for higher prices facing Americans and predicted oil costs will fall sharply when the Iran conflict ends, as disruptions across the Middle East continue to threaten major global energy routes.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
President Donald Trump sought Monday to separate his administration from the higher prices confronting Americans, blaming former President Joe Biden while arguing that the current surge in oil costs is temporary and will reverse once the U.S.-Iran conflict ends.
“I hope everyone realizes that price increases throughout America were caused by Sleepy Joe Biden and the Biden Administration, not by ‘TRUMP.’ Even Oil was higher under Biden than it is right now, and we prevented Iran from having a Nuclear Weapon! With the temporary exception of Oil, prices are coming down sharply, and Oil will drop like a rock as soon as the Military Conflict with Iran is over, and that will not be long. Thank you for your attention to this matter! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump separately predicted that oil prices would fall once the Iran war ends, even as crude markets remained under intense pressure Monday from disrupted shipping lanes, attacks on energy infrastructure and uncertainty surrounding the duration of the conflict.
The president has previously made statements indicating that the fighting was ending or had effectively been resolved, including in earlier public comments about the conflict. His latest prediction nevertheless came as military operations and disruptions to regional energy infrastructure continued.
Brent crude climbed as high as roughly $110 per barrel Monday before retreating, while U.S. crude also remained above $100 as traders assessed threats to oil supplies across the Persian Gulf and Red Sea. Reuters reported that attacks on Saudi infrastructure and threats to shipping routes were keeping energy markets under significant pressure.
The growing supply concerns extend well beyond Iran itself.
Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, a crucial route that allows crude to bypass the Strait of Hormuz and reach the Red Sea, was temporarily shut following a drone attack. Reuters reported that the disruption threatened an important alternative export route at the same time traffic through Hormuz remained severely depressed.
Iran-backed Houthi forces have also expanded their position along Yemen’s Red Sea coast and seized strategic islands, further increasing concern about the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, another critical route for energy and commercial shipping. The attacks and territorial advances have raised risks for Saudi Arabia and global oil transportation, although current reporting attributes those actions to the Houthis and other Iran-aligned forces rather than establishing that Iran itself directly carried out each attack.
The scale of potential disruption was highlighted by The Kobeissi Letter, which described the mounting energy risks across several major oil corridors.
“It seems most people don’t understand how severe the energy situation is right now in the Middle East.
“As of Friday, Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline has officially been shut down after recent attacks, putting -4 million barrels of daily oil exports at risk.
“Meanwhile, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait is now at risk of being shut down, threatening up to -9 million barrels of daily oil supply.
“All while the Strait of Hormuz is operating at ~20% of its pre-Iran War capacity, removing -15 million barrels of daily oil flows.
“Combined, this represents nearly ~30 MILLION barrels per day of oil flows that are either offline or at risk.
“Even after accounting for some overlap between these routes, the scale of the potential disruption is enormous relative to the ~100 million barrel per day global oil market.
“This is one of the most severe energy supply situations in modern history.”
Actual vessel-tracking data underscores the severity of the Hormuz slowdown. Reuters reported Monday that only four commodity vessels exited the Persian Gulf and 10 entered over the weekend, sharply below normal prewar levels. Before the Iran war began Feb. 28, approximately 125 large commercial vessels passed through the strait each day, carrying about 20% of the world’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas supply.
Against that backdrop, Trump announced Monday that oil was continuing to pass through Hormuz and argued that countries benefiting from U.S. military operations in the region should eventually repay Washington.
“Oil is flowing through the Hormuz Strait. The Countries of the World, which have been no help to us whatsoever, should, and will, reimburse the United States of America when this SCAM Confligration is all over. We are doing it much more for others, than we are for ourselves, and we have been for Generations! President DONALD J. TRUMP,” he wrote on Truth Social.
The United States is enforcing a naval blockade involving Iranian ports and shipping. U.S. Central Command said its forces redirected 100 commercial vessels during a 60-day period and that no vessel crossed the blockade without U.S. authorization. Reuters separately reported that the American blockade has effectively halted Iranian crude exports since mid-July.
WTKR News 3 reported Monday on the expanding operation, describing additional U.S. forces supporting what Trump has called a “wall of steel.”
“The U.S. military said it has redirected 100 commercial vessels over the past 60 days while enforcing a maritime blockade against Iran, underscoring the high-stakes security dynamic in the critical Strait of Hormuz,” the report said.
The station’s video report on the U.S. naval blockade detailed the military presence surrounding the strategically important waterway.
Energy pressures have simultaneously developed from Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Trump said Monday that Ukraine and Russia had agreed to stop attacking one another’s energy facilities.
“Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian Energy targets. Russia has agreed to do, likewise! The World’s Diesel price rise is mostly caused by the Russia/Ukraine War, not Iran. President DJT,” Trump said in a statement..
Ukraine has conducted repeated long-range drone strikes against Russian refineries, while Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukrainian power and energy infrastructure. Those attacks have added another source of instability to international fuel supplies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later said Kyiv had proposed a reciprocal halt to energy strikes but indicated that a finalized agreement with Moscow had not yet been reached, creating a distinction between Trump’s announcement and Ukraine’s description of the discussions.
The combined energy shocks are now spilling into financial markets.
The benchmark U.S. 10-year Treasury yield climbed above 5% Monday for the first time since October 2023 as investors confronted renewed inflation concerns associated in part with higher oil prices. Higher Treasury yields can feed through to mortgages, business borrowing and other forms of consumer credit.
Some geopolitical analysts have characterized the overlapping pressure on oil infrastructure from the Russia-Ukraine war and the expanding Middle East conflict as an “energy world war,” reflecting how separate military campaigns are increasingly affecting the same global commodity markets.
The conflicts themselves, however, remain distinct, involving different governments, military objectives and theaters of operation.
Trump’s central argument Monday was that the current oil shock will prove temporary. He blamed broader U.S. price increases on his predecessor, maintained that the Russia-Ukraine war is responsible for much of the increase in diesel prices and predicted that crude prices will fall rapidly once hostilities with Iran end.
For global energy markets, the immediate picture remains considerably more uncertain. Shipping through Hormuz is running far below prewar levels, Saudi Arabia’s principal pipeline bypass has been disrupted, Houthi advances are raising concerns around the Red Sea and attacks on Russian energy infrastructure have reduced refining capacity.
Those simultaneous pressures help explain why oil approached $110 per barrel Monday even as Trump predicted that the price would ultimately “drop like a rock” once the Iran conflict is over.
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