President Donald Trump has sought to frame higher oil prices as beneficial after energy costs rose amid the U.S.-Iran conflict, according to Associated Press reporting. The shift has come as his administration’s messages about the Strait of Hormuz—and how to restore shipping traffic there—have varied from day to day.
On Thursday, Trump told viewers on his social media site, “The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” the report said. The comment contrasted with what the article described as his earlier focus on keeping energy prices low.
The pivot also comes after Trump previously cited lower gasoline prices. In his State of the Union address earlier than March 12, Trump had bragged about gas prices at $2.30 a gallon, the report said, adding that AAA later put the national average at $3.60 a gallon, more than 50% higher.
The AP report said the change in messaging reflects political considerations at home colliding with the administration’s effort to manage risks in the Middle East. It noted that Goldman Sachs said on Thursday that higher oil prices, based on its forecasts and historic experience, would likely raise inflation, slow growth and increase unemployment by the end of the year.
A central problem in the administration’s approach has been the Strait of Hormuz. Normally, about 20 million barrels of oil pass through the strait each day, the report said, but most tankers have been avoiding it. As a result, benchmark crude prices have swung, and the global crude oil benchmark price jumped to $100 a barrel on Thursday, the report said.
Oxford Economics warned that volatility was likely to persist. The consultancy’s analysts said in a Wednesday assessment that the swings in Brent crude over the past several days were “eye-catching” and that odds were volatility would remain because there was no timeline for when the conflict would deescalate and when the Strait of Hormuz—described as effectively closed—would see traffic recover.
The report also described a series of contradictory messages from Trump and administration officials about when shipping would become safer. In a Monday news conference, Trump said the Strait of Hormuz “is going to remain safe,” even after it had been identified earlier as a danger zone. By Tuesday, he posted on Truth Social that Iran would face “Military consequences” that would be “at a level never seen before” if it placed mines in the Strait of Hormuz.
Trump later stressed that the U.S. military was blowing up Iran’s mine-laying ships, the report said. Meanwhile, the article said Energy Secretary Chris Wright briefly posted that the U.S. Navy had escorted a tanker through the strait before deleting the claim.
Later on Wednesday, Wright told CNBC that while the escorting of tankers would happen “relatively soon,” it “can’t happen now,” according to the report. Wright also said in the interview that “All of our military assets right now are focused on destroying Iran’s offensive capabilities,” the AP account said, while adding that the conflict was causing “a significant disruption” in short-term gas prices.
In parallel, the administration has taken steps aimed at loosening other oil constraints. Late on Thursday, the Treasury Department said it would grant a monthlong license to waive sanctions related to Russia’s war in Ukraine to free up Russian oil stranded on tankers at sea, the report said. It described the move as building on a prior step to allow India temporary permission to buy Russian oil.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent posted on X that the expanded waiver was a “narrowly tailored, short-term measure” that would “not provide significant financial benefit to the Russian government,” the report said, adding that most of Russia’s energy revenue comes from taxes assessed at the point of extraction.
The AP report also said the administration was looking at temporary changes to shipping rules. Earlier Thursday, the White House said it was considering waiving Jones Act requirements so that goods between U.S. ports could be moved using U.S.-flagged ships, with press secretary Karoline Leavitt saying it could “ensure vital energy products and agricultural necessities are flowing freely to U.S. ports.”
The report further said Trump had changed his approach to strategic reserves. It noted that on Wednesday, Trump said the U.S. would join with other countries and release oil to lower prices, after he had downplayed the need to tap the reserves earlier. Joe Brusuelas, chief U.S. economist at RSM, said the coordinated release was unlikely to bring down oil prices and would instead stabilize the market temporarily, according to the report. Brusuelas described it as slowing rather than stopping rising oil prices and offering a temporary salve to gasoline prices.
The AP report framed the overall sequence as an attempt to manage pricing pressure while the Strait of Hormuz remains difficult to reopen for routine tanker traffic. It also said analysts estimated that about 125 million barrels were loaded on tankers at sea last week.