President Trump launched a series of efforts this week to staunch spiking gas prices following his decision to attack Iran, but the effects are limited so far.
Brent Crude Oil (BZ=F) prices on Friday broached $90 per barrel and are now trading up nearly 30% from before the war in Iran began. A closer-to-home metric of West Texas crude oil (CL=F) was up by nearly a third.
Prices at the pump in the US have quickly followed, jumping from an average $2.98 per gallon last week to $3.32 on Friday, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA). Diesel has seen even bigger increases.
Trump has tried to dismiss the effects of these price spikes on his political standing, even claiming that the oil market has “pretty much stabilized.”
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A man pumps gas in Washington, DC this week as the price of oil and gas have surged amid the conflict with Iran. (REUTERS/Ken Cedeno) · Reuters / Reuters
US presidents have limited power to sway the global price of oil, but they tend to bear the blame for rising prices at the pump — and rising prices have clearly got the attention of Trump’s team.
On Thursday evening, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the latest countermeasure in the form of a 30-day waiver to allow Russian oil to flow into India, saying the “stop-gap measure will alleviate pressure.”
It was a notably limited measure that only applies to crude oil already at sea, and it had no immediate effect on prices, with Brent crude climbing another 5% in the 12 hours immediately following the announcement.
Earlier in the week, Trump temporarily slowed the price increases by announcing plans for risk insurance and naval escorts in the Strait of Hormuz. But the relief was short-lived, and increases soon resumed.
Expert projections suggest price pressure is unlikely to ease quickly. That’s of particular concern to Trump, who has touted lower gas prices dozens of times in the last year as his party prepares to face voters in midterm elections in just a few months.
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Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, recently forecast that prices could be headed for $3.40 to $3.55 per gallon and posted Friday morning that the current oil market “gave me the chills.”
Earlier this week, he pointed out that gas prices are at “the highest level recorded during either of Trump’s terms in office.”
The average price of gas was about $3.13 the week Trump was sworn in last year, according to AAA.
In a Yahoo Finance appearance on Thursday, Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi suggested that the economy might be able to handle modest price spikes, but “it’s not great in the current context when American families are already on high alert over affordability.”
He downplayed the chances of oil reaching the psychologically significant $100-a-barrel level but also said if that milestone is reached and sticks for a significant length of time, “the impacts become much more significant and recession risks become a real threat.”
Trump himself has tried to dismiss the worries.
At a White House event on Thursday, the president touted his “decisive action to help keep down the oil prices” and claimed that things in the oil market had stabilized after a “little detour.”
Trump’s team has repeatedly argued that the war with Iran will ease oil prices in the long term. Earlier in the week, Trump pushed back on concerns about rising gas prices in an interview with Politico by saying of the war in Iran, “People are loving what’s happening.”
But the issue has clearly caused unease inside the White House. Politico also reported this week that top Trump energy advisers “are getting screamed at to find some good news” to counteract rising prices.
President Donald Trump following an event celebrating the 2025 MLS Cup Champions Inter Miami CF at the White House on March 5. (Win McNamee/Getty Images) · Win McNamee via Getty Images
Ben Werschkul is a Washington correspondent for Yahoo Finance.
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