WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s widening war in Iran is causing oil prices to fluctuate wildly, making fuel more expensive for consumers and businesses and threatening to cause a larger crisis in the global economy.
Oil spiked to as high as $119 a barrel on Monday, up from just about $70 before the war began. It then dropped back down to under $90. But Republicans on Capitol Hill are mostly urging Americans to ignore the seesaw and have patience, insisting the conflict won’t last long enough to seriously hurt consumers’ pocketbooks.
“I don’t know how anybody can be surprised. When you have a major conflict in the Middle East, prices always go up,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) told HuffPost. “But it’s a delivery problem. The [oil] tankers can’t get through the Strait of Hormuz.”
“I really don’t expect this to last long enough to have an ultimate impact on gas prices,” he added.
Drivers may beg to differ. According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. has increased more than 21% in the last week, now averaging $3.47 per gallon. That’s far higher than when Trump delivered his State of the Union address to Congress two weeks ago, in which he claimed gas prices are “$2.30 a gallon in most states, and in some places $1.99 a gallon.”
