Trump Energy Secretary Warns Gas Prices Won’t Be Falling Any Time Soon Despite Previously Saying They Would Drop by Summer
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright warned that gas prices would not be falling any time soon on Monday, despite previously predicting that gas prices would drop by the Summer.
During an interview with Wright at the Semafor World Economy summit, Semafor White House correspondent Shelby Talcott said, “I want to talk a little bit about gas prices, and I know you’ve talked a lot about this recently, but the president said yesterday that high oil and gas prices could be here to stay or could even be a little higher by the midterms in November. You’ve sounded more optimistic in past interviews, saying you expect gas prices to ease and that there’s a good chance that prices could hit under three dollars a gallon by the summer.”
She then inquired, “Is that still your belief, particularly given today’s blockade in the Strait, or has the dynamic changed there?”
“Well, by the summer is aggressive timeframe now,” replied Wright, who continued:
You know, going into this, this is a 47-year long conflict with Iran that’s repeatedly not only been a threat to American soldiers and peace in the Middle East, but also a threat to energy supplies. The Arabian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz have been important my whole lifetime, and so the president knew going into this that if you disrupt the flow of energy through that, in the short term you’re going to push up energy prices. In fact, I’m very proud of a president who in his first term and his second term has done everything he can to grow supply and therefore push down the price of energy, that he was willing to say, “I’m not gonna kick that can down the road as other administrations have. I’m not gonna let Iran become nuclear-armed with a massive weapons missile stockpile so that they can never be de-fanged. We just have to live with this massive energy overhang in the Middle East that got worse.” He knew it was short-term disruptive, but he felt committed to end this threat that Iran is about to cross this threshold. I’m proud of that, but it does mean higher energy prices in the short-term. It absolutely does.
President Donald Trump himself warned on Sunday that gas prices could rise instead of drop in 2026 as a result of his ongoing conflict with Iran.
“The gas hasn’t gone up as much as I thought,” he told Fox News host Maria Bartiromo. “But regardless, even if it did… we have to stop this group of people from having [a nuclear weapon]… You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”
Watch above via C-SPAN.
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