President Donald Trump’s war against Iran is already throwing him and his officials for a loop.
The U.S. was blindsided by Israel’s extensive strikes on Iranian oil depots on Sunday, according to a U.S. official, an Israeli official, and a source with knowledge, Axios reports.
Tehran was blanketed in a toxic cloud of smoke after Israel struck 30 Iranian fuel depots in an attack that far exceeded what the U.S. had expected, triggering the first rift between the U.S. and Israel in the war, according to Axios.
Trump, who has sought to tout his efforts on affordability, was angered by the strike, fearing that footage of burning oil depots would remind Americans of soaring gas prices at home, the outlet reports.
“The president doesn’t like the attack. He wants to save the oil. He doesn’t want to burn it. And it reminds people of higher gas prices,” a Trump adviser told Axios.
Oil prices have jumped roughly 50 percent since the U.S. and Israel—led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—attacked Iran on Feb. 28, as the Strait of Hormuz has effectively been closed off.
Trump, 79, tried to argue Sunday that “short term” increases in oil are “a very small price to pay” for “safety and peace.”
“ONLY FOOLS WOULD THINK DIFFERENTLY!” the billionaire president wrote on Truth Social.
The IDF had informed the U.S. military ahead of the strikes, but the full scale of the operation still caught Washington off guard.
“We don’t think it was a good idea,” a senior U.S. official told Axios.
An Israeli official said the U.S. message to Israel was “WTF.”
U.S. officials also fear that Israel’s attack on infrastructure that affects everyday Iranians could rally the population behind the Islamic regime instead of weakening it.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
The IDF said in a statement to Axios that the fuel depots “are used by the Iranian regime to supply fuel to different consumers including its military organs” while an Israeli military official said the operation was designed, in part, to deter Iran from attacking Israeli civilian infrastructure.
The Iranian regime has warned that if attacks on its oil infrastructure continue, it may retaliate by striking similar infrastructure in the Middle East, which could drive up global oil prices even higher.
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