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Amid escalating tensions with Iran, Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is urging immediate measures to alleviate surging gas prices, according to insider reports.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright and other senior officials, including a council led by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, are reportedly under intense pressure to deliver positive outcomes, as shared by industry insiders.
Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical channel through which 20% of the world’s oil supply flows, has triggered a dramatic spike in oil prices, with Brent crude soaring from $72 to over $82 a barrel in just a week.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) reported that the national average for gas prices soared by 11 cents overnight on Tuesday, reaching $3.11 per gallon. This marks the most significant single-day increase since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In response, energy executives and Trump administration officials are exploring potential solutions, including the possibility of a temporary suspension of the gasoline tax or deploying military forces to protect oil infrastructure in the Gulf region.
The White House is ‘looking under every rock for ideas on improving energy prices, especially gasoline prices,’ one energy executive told Politico.
Karoline Leavitt dismissed the reporting as ‘sensationalist, unverified gossip for clicks. Nobody is panicking.’ A White House official told the Daily Mail that Wall Street is not anticipating inflation, with Treasury yields down 50 basis points since Trump took office and core inflation down to its lowest rate in almost five years.
But the pain at the pump lands at a delicate moment for Trump, who faces crucial midterm elections in November. A new Daily Mail/J.L. Partners poll puts his approval rating at its lowest point ever, down four points to 44 percent since Friday.
Donald Trump and Susie Wiles in the Situation Room at Mar-a-Lago on Saturday as the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran
Iran has shut the Strait of Hormuz (pictured), through which a fifth of the world’s oil flows, sending prices soaring more than 10 percent in a single week, with Brent crude jumping from $72 to over $82 a barrel
People run for safety as smoke rises after an airstrike in central Tehran on Thursday
Wiles attends Trump’s meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the Oval Office at the White House on Wednesday
The administration only began calling energy executives days after the strikes.
Roadblocks include the congressional approval required for any gas tax break, and the political sensitivity of putting American boots on the ground in the Middle East.
Wright joined other Trump officials in backing the Iran strikes and downplayed spiking oil prices as a temporary blip.
The Energy Secretary called it a ‘transient bump’ and a ‘small price to pay’ to achieve the military objective of disarming the Iranian regime during an interview with Laura Ingraham on Fox News.
‘The faction of the White House that would care about $80–90 oil is being silenced,’ an administration source said. ‘There are louder voices winning at the moment.’
Trump swatted away concerns, telling reporters ‘if we have a little high oil prices’ that was acceptable because ‘as soon as this ends, those prices are going to drop, lower than even before.’
The administration on Tuesday announced it would protect ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz and ordered the US International Development Finance Corp. to provide ‘at a very reasonable price’ insurance to shippers in an effort to cool markets.
But the narrow passage remains choked.
An F/A-18E Super Hornet, attached to Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 151, making an arrested landing on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in support of Operation Epic Fury on Wednesday
Oil tankers are seen off the coast of Fujairah, as Iran vows to fire on ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz, amid the U.S.-Israel conflict with Iran, in Fujairah, United Arab Emirates
Two F/A-18 Super Hornets launch from the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in support of Operation Epic Fury on Wednesday
U.S. Navy sailors assigned to Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Delbert D. Black participate in a replenishment-at-sea with fleet replenishment oiler USNS Henry J. Kaiser in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility in support of the Operation Epic Fury attack on Iran Wednesday
Despite the offer of Navy escorts, shipping giants Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM have suspended all transits, and at least 14 LNG tankers have stopped or reversed course as marine insurers largely withdrew coverage following the attack on the Palau-flagged tanker Skylight off the coast of Oman.
Since the US and Israel launched the war Saturday and killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran has unleashed thousands of drones and ballistic missiles at Israel, American bases and embassies across the region, and energy facilities throughout the Gulf, with fire even directed toward Cyprus, Turkey and Azerbaijan.
Tehran’s strategy is straightforward: inflict enough casualties and economic pain to spook America’s allies into pressuring Trump to back down.
The US and Israel have carried out hundreds of airstrikes on Iranian government, military and nuclear targets, killing 1,045 people inside Iran, according to Tehran.
Despite being greatly outgunned, Iran has kept firing ballistic missiles into Israel, killing 11 people and disrupting life for millions, with further casualties reported across Arab states.