Trump teases drastic move to combat soaring oil prices he caused
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he is considering making a drastic move to combat rising oil prices that have resulted from the U.S. and Israel's coordinated bombing campaign in Iran.
During an interview with a local television station in Cincinnati, Ohio, Trump indicated that he plans to tap the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help bring down energy costs. The comments were made at a time when AAA's petroleum market experts measured the national average cost of a gallon of gasoline at $3.54, about $0.38 higher than this time last week.
“We’ll do that and then we’ll fill it up,” Trump said in the interview, according to a report by Bloomberg. “Right now, we’ll reduce it a little bit and that brings the prices down.”
Earlier this month, the U.S. and Israel coordinated more than 100 bombing strikes across Iran, an operation that killed several of the country's top military and political leaders, including Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
In turn, Iran has placed mines in the Strait of Hormuz, the linchpin of the global oil market.
As a result, oil prices reached nearly $120 per barrel, sending global financial markets tumbling. Trump declared the war in Iran "very much over" on Monday following a turbulent session in the stock market.