President Donald Trump’s tactic of trying to speak into existence an end to the wars in Iran and Ukraine is running into an immovable wall of reality, with those conflicts threatening a worldwide energy crisis.
As gasoline and diesel prices continued to climb due to both the war in Iran and the war in Ukraine—the latter of which Trump said he’d end on Day 1 of his presidency—Trump fired off Truth Social posts that said deals to end both conflicts were in the works or had already been made.
“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,” Trump wrote Monday in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Later, Trump wrote in yet another Truth Social post, “The failing Nation of Iran wants to make a deal, quickly and badly. I will determine whether or not the U.S.A. will choose to engage – The concept of which we are open to.”
Where to begin?
First, while the war in Ukraine is impacting global diesel prices, the war in Iran is also to blame for rising energy costs. Trump’s effort to place the blame for the spike in gas prices solely on the conflict in and around Ukraine is just his way of trying to shirk responsibility for the calamity he caused in the Middle East.
Yet the fact that the war in Ukraine is still raging is also Trump’s fault, if you take him at his word. Trump promised to end the war in Ukraine on Day 1 of his second term in office.
What’s more, Trump’s claim that Ukraine and Russia had reached a deal to stop targeting oil refineries was proven false not even 24 hours later, when Ukraine struck yet another Russian oil facility. Indeed, on Tuesday, both Ukraine and Russia said there never was a truce, meaning Trump has apparently lied yet again.
Meanwhile, Trump’s claim that Iran wants to make a deal is also baseless. The Middle Eastern nation is ramping up its attacks and efforts to choke off a massive chunk of the world’s oil supply—the result of which would be disastrous to the global economy.
Indeed, oil and gas executives are now saying that the crisis they had warned of has arrived.
More than six months since Trump launched his war in Iran, many countries—the United States included—are running out of their reserves. Those reserves helped mitigate a bigger supply shock, keeping prices lower. But with large portions of the world’s oil supply now either choked off by Iran in the Middle East or by Russia’s continued war in Ukraine, and with no way to make up the deficit, oil prices may now surge to even higher.
“All these mechanisms helped to mitigate the price and supply risk,” Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said at an energy conference on Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported. “Those have largely now played out, and we don’t have nearly the buffers in the system that we did when it began.”
Wirth added that he can’t see fuel prices coming down anytime soon.
“I wish I could tell you that I saw some reason why things would ease, but it’s difficult right now to see that happen,” Wirth said.
Ultimately, Trump’s Iran war and his chummy relationship with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, which has seemingly helped prolong the war in Ukraine, are now creating a massive problem for Trump and Republicans in this year’s midterm elections.
Gas prices—which can inflate the cost of other critical goods and services—are surging just as the election season is kicking into high gear. That threatens to fuel a blue wave so large it takes down even unsuspecting GOP lawmakers.
Trump’s impotent social media bluster can’t save him.