Energy Secretary Chris Wright lit up the internet Tuesday after his social media post about Navy tanker escorts sent oil markets into a frenzy.
The post, which has since been deleted, left Wall Street reeling from what one expert called “an unforgivable error,” according to the Wall Street Journal. The tweet, which cost traders $84 million in minutes, claimed the U.S. Navy was escorting oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, causing crude futures to nosedive. Department of Energy officials later admitted, “A video clip was deleted from Secretary Wright’s official X account after it was determined to be incorrectly captioned by Department of Energy staff.”
“Benchmark U.S. crude futures plunged by as much as 19% at one point,” the report noted.
The bewildering blunder sparked outrage on social media.
Political strategist Kurt Bardella wrote on X, “The sheer level of ineptitude is staggering …”
Dave Itzkoff, a former culture reporter for The New York Times, shared an image on X of a scene from The Simpson with the caption, “Boy, I really bet nobody gets fired for that blunder.”
Tommy Vietor, co-host of the progressive podcast Pod Save America, wrote on X, “Amateur hour.”
New York Times reporter Mike Isaac wrote on X, “really funny how a cabinet secretary can be like ‘im just gonna delete that tweet right quick and hope no one notices.’”
He added: “meanwhile some fund manager is considering hudsucker proxying himself running down the boardroom table.”
Rosemary Kelanic, director of the Middle East program at Defense Priorities wrote on X, “Wow. Tells us a lot — namely that market fundamentals aren’t driving oil volatility, ‘vibes’ are.”
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