President Donald Trump might be forced to reach for a “drastic move” as his war on Iran continues to drag down Republican election fortunes.
The 80-year-old president publicly pressed Chevron CEO Mike Wirth on social media Monday to cut consumer gas prices, writing “Get your consumer (retail!) Oil Prices DOWN, NOW!” — a demand that came days after both Chevron and ExxonMobil reported record second-quarter earnings and announced expectations that prices would stay high, reported Bloomberg.
“They had better hope that a cornered Trump, with one eye on approaching midterms, doesn’t reach for emergency measures that would hit Big Oil’s bottom line immediately,” wrote columnist Liam Denning.
Average gasoline prices have climbed back above $4 a gallon as the war with Iran drags on, undercutting Trump’s campaign pledge of $2 gasoline and raising the possibility that voters could see high pump prices heading into the midterms — something that didn’t even happen under Biden during 2022’s price spike.
A durable peace with Iran that reopens the Strait of Hormuz has proven harder to secure than the administration expected.
Meanwhile, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve has fallen by a quarter since the war began, to roughly 308 million barrels — a 40-year low equal to about two weeks of U.S. demand — with flow rates expected to worsen further once it drops below 300 million.
Commercial crude stocks are also at an eight-year low, and global refining capacity is down sharply, tightening supplies of gasoline and diesel worldwide.
With those levers strained, one more aggressive option could be emergency limits on fuel exports under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act.
Such a move would immediately redirect oil bound for overseas markets back into domestic storage, suppressing prices in the short term. But it would function similarly to price controls, alienate oil-industry donors, and risk disrupting domestic production and refining.
Trump said in May he didn’t need such measures, and White House officials called an export ban off the table “at this time” — a qualifier analysts say leaves room for reversal.
“Whether that still holds true three months closer to November is anyone’s guess,” Denning wrote. “Trump’s predilection for drastic moves is exemplified by the war itself, and he wouldn’t be the first politician to reach for a short-term fix.”
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