Trump: accept higher gas prices as Iran holds Hormuz blockade
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- Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran's deputy foreign minister, declared the Strait of Hormuz "cannot be seized by a tweet or an aircraft carrier" and said Iran would keep enforcing its blockade until the US accepts defeat.
- Trump told a Garden City, New York rally that paying "a tiny little bit more" for gasoline is worth ensuring "a very evil country" cannot get a nuclear weapon, even as the US Navy's 260-day carrier deployment continues.
- US gas prices climbed to $4.08 per gallon on Friday, up 29% from $3.16 a year earlier, with Brent and WTI crude futures on track for weekly gains of 6.0% and 5.4% on the virtual closure of Hormuz.
- Strait of Hormuz traffic collapsed to just two vessels on Friday — one grain ship and one empty dry bulk carrier — versus more than 130 daily before the war began Feb. 28, with three Abu Dhabi National Oil Company vessels attacked Thursday and Friday.
- Iran's President Pezeshkian acknowledged an economic toll domestically, blaming high inflation on a US blockade of Iranian ports and sanctions, while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said more punitive financial measures are coming next week.
- Peace talks remain stalled, with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi saying no decision to restart negotiations has been made; mediators Qatar and Pakistan are exchanging messages but this does not amount to talks, per Iranian state media.
- Yemen's Houthis fired six ballistic missiles at the Red Sea port of Mocha on Friday, killing four civilians, and separately targeted an Aramco facility in Saudi Arabia's Najran with a drone, raising fears of a wider regional war.
Why it matters: The blockade of a waterway carrying one-fifth of global oil exports has pushed US gasoline up 29% year-over-year to $4.08/gallon and driven Brent crude to a 6% weekly gain, directly colliding with Trump's campaign promise to lower energy costs and handing Democrats economic ammunition ahead of November midterms. Iran is absorbing its own inflation hit, with President Pezeshkian publicly blaming US sanctions — evidence the squeeze is biting both sides, even as Trump's rally rhetoric frames the cost as a small price for blocking a nuclear-armed 'evil' adversary.
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