Treasury just quietly admitted what the headlines won’t: Trump’s “maximum pressure” war on Iran is now so costly that Washington is considering unsanctioning Iranian oil to keep the global economy from seizing up.
The administration is scrambling to plug a crisis it helped trigger. After US–Israeli strikes on Iran and Iran’s retaliation across the Gulf, attacks on Qatar’s Ras Laffan LNG terminal, refineries in Kuwait, export infrastructure in Saudi Arabia and gas sites in the UAE have pushed Brent to around $118 a barrel and sent European gas prices up as much as 30 percent in a day.
Qatar’s energy chief says almost a fifth of the country’s LNG export capacity is offline and could take three to five years to rebuild. In response, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is now talking about “unsanctioning” roughly 140 million barrels of Iranian oil already afloat and tapping US reserves again — a public U‑turn from punishing Iran’s barrels to begging them into the market.
At the same time, the Pentagon has dropped a 200‑billion‑dollar funding request for the Iran war on the White House, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shrugging that “it takes money to kill bad guys” and adding that even this number “could move.”
Last week, the US already lifted sanctions on Russian oil currently at sea and allowed Iranian‑linked tankers and companies to carry and sell that Russian crude to help ease prices — effectively outsourcing part of the energy fix to the very networks it claims to be fighting.
Iran, for its part, is done pretending this is limited. Its foreign minister Abbas Araghchi is promising “ZERO restraint” if Iranian energy infrastructure is hit again, while Tehran keeps firing back across Gulf facilities and watching panic ripple through markets.
Yet from the Pentagon podium, Hegseth insists the US is “winning decisively and on our terms,” refuses to give any timeline for the war’s end, and leaves the impression of a superpower that has to buy its way out of the energy blowback it unleashed.
So the picture is brutally simple: every new strike on oil and gas sites adds another dollar to the barrel, another line to a 200‑billion‑dollar war tab, and another twist in the logic that says America must keep bombing Iran while quietly putting Iranian and Russian barrels back on the balance sheet to keep the lights on.
#IranWar#Trump#oil#gas#energyCrisis#Hormuz#Qatar#Russia#sanctions#warCost
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President Trump told The Hill on Monday that he disagreed with Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s assessment that gas prices may not drop below $3 per gallon until next year.
“No, I think he’s wrong on that. Totally wrong,”
Trump said in a phone interview when asked about his Energy chief’s comments.
When asked by The Hill when he believes gas prices will drop, Trump said “as soon as this ends,” referring to the Iran war.
Wright told CNN on Sunday that gas prices might not drop below $3 until next year amid shipping restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz.
“I don’t know. That could happen later this year. That might not happen until next year,”
Wright said.
“But prices have likely peaked and they will start going down,”
the secretary added.
“Certainly, with a resolution of this conflict, you will see prices go down. Prices across the board on energy prices will go down.”
#Trump#Gas
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Gas prices in Palm Beach County have skyrocketed by 25 percent in just one month after its most famous resident President Donald Trump declared war on Iran.
Drivers in Trump's Florida hometown are now paying $4 per gallon at the pump after prices rose by 11 cents overnight, AAA fuel tracking data showed. A gallon of gas in Palm Beach County now costs a dollar more than it did last month, before the invasion of Iran began.
West Palm Beach has recorded some of the highest gas prices in Florida, with residents now paying 87 cents more per gallon than they did last month.
The county is a wealthy one, filled with millionaires and billionaires who live in coastal compounds - but the workers who keep the county running are more likely to struggle with the sudden price spike.
The surge in fuel prices is impacting drivers across the country as well, with the national average now at $3.79 per gallon –– a 30 percent increase from last month's average, data showed.
Fuel prices soared to their highest levels since 2022 last week after Iran shut the Strait of Hormuz to most oil tankers in response to the joint US-Israeli attacks.
Trump on Monday said he has demanded about seven countries send warships to keep the Strait of Hormuz open as fears of a global energy crisis persist.
But Iranian strikes on commercial ships in and around the strait, and even just the threat of attacks, have slowed shipping there to a trickle.
The surge in oil and gas prices comes after Trump had bragged about gas prices at $2.30 a gallon during his State of the Union address last month.
#Trump#Gas
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White House senior staff and administration officials are discussing the possibility that oil prices climb to a record $150 or more per barrel as the Iran war drags into its second month, according to a person familiar with the conversations and two people close to the White House. ⚠️⛽️
White House officials are looking at the economic effect of higher prices and considering ideas for bringing down those costs, including the deployment of additional emergency powers, according to two industry officials in contact with the White House, who, like others in this report, were granted anonymity to speak freely about private conversations. 📊
#Trump#Oil
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Traders placed nearly half a billion dollars in bets on falling oil prices just 15 minutes before President Trump’s announcement of “productive” talks with Iran sent prices tumbling. 📉
“It’s hard to prove causality . . . but you have to wonder who would have been relatively aggressive at selling futures at that point, 15 minutes before Trump’s post,”
one market strategist told the Financial Times of the transactions.
Roughly 6,200 Brent and West Texas Intermediate contracts traded between 6:49 a.m. and 6:50 a.m. on Monday, with unusually large bets in the oil futures market, worth roughly $580 million.
The trades seemed reminiscent of an anonymous bet on Polymarket in January that saw one lucky user win $436,000 by betting on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s ouster just hours before he was captured by U.S. forces. ⚠️
#Trump#Oil
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Traders placed bets on oil worth $580 million about 15 minutes before U.S. President Donald Trump's Truth Social post announcing "very good and productive negotiations" with Iran, which led to a drop in oil prices.
#Trump#Oil
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⚡️Brent oil prices soared above $90 per barrel for the first time in two years after Trump announced that "there will be no agreement with Iran"
#Trump#Iran#Oil
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Trump has directed some frustration at Zelensky and Europe🇪🇺, believing that they are being unrealistic in their demands and need to accept that Ukraine has to lose some territory to end the conflict, the current and ex-officials told us. He is hesitant to commit more U.S. involvement 🇺🇸, wary of alienating his MAGA base, and he has ratcheted up his efforts to blame the war on his predecessor, Joe Biden, even seven months into his own presidency.
“He just wants this over,” the senior official told us. “It almost doesn’t matter how.” 🕊
#Trump#Russia#Ukraine
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Over the past year two parallel sets of talks have been held about ending the war in Ukraine.
American-led negotiations with Russia have produced proposal after proposal but no agreement on territory or security guarantees. Meanwhile, other envoys from the Kremlin and the White House have been discussing business.
Volodymyr Zelensky, citing Ukrainian intelligence, says Russia has promised deals worth $12trn to America in return for sanctions relief; one insider reckons a package has already been agreed on. In Europe fears are rising that President Donald Trump could force Ukraine into crippling concessions by June—his latest deadline for peace—to chase gold in Russia.
#Russia#Trump#Putin
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President Donald Trump said that Russian President Vladimir Putin informed him in a Monday morning call of a Ukrainian drone attack allegedly targeting one of his residences, saying the move was “not good,” even as Kyiv immediately rejected the allegation.
#Trump#Putin#Russia
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During the talks between Trump and Maduro, it was discussed that Moscow could become the Venezuelan dictator's place of refuge, the Republican senator said. 🌍📞
Rumors are rife that Venezuela's dictator may seek refuge in Russia. 😳 It is known that US President Donald Trump spoke with Nicolas Maduro on the phone last week. Trump, according to American media, promised the dictator safe departure from the country if he resigns. ✈️
The White House confirmed the fact of a telephone conversation with Maduro, but Trump did not want to disclose the details.: 🗣
"I wouldn't say it went well or poorly. It was a phone call." 🎤
Republican Senator Markwayne Mullin then told CNN that Russia had been discussed as a country where Maduro could go into exile. 🛩
The United States and Venezuela are on the verge of war ⚔️
The United States has concentrated 25% of its military fleet in the Caribbean. F-35 fighter jets, amphibious assault boats and 15,000 soldiers are ready for battle. 💥 Trump warned, that civil aviation should avoid Venezuelan airspace. The military pressure on Maduro has thus reached a high point: the White House is seeking his resignation. 🏃♂️
However, the Venezuelan dictator can resist. Although Trump does not rule out the use of US ground forces, an invasion of Venezuela is considered unlikely: the president promised the MAGA movement not to start major wars. 👮♂️ If Trump eventually withdraws the Caribbean flotilla while Maduro remains in power, the autocrat will look "like a winner," writes the Wall Street Journal.📊
#Trump#Venezuela#Russia
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