On the sixth day of the war with Iran, Donald Trump made a curious comment at a White House event.
“Yesterday, my administration announced decisive action to help keep down the oil prices,” the president declared. Moments later, the Republican went on to say oil prices “have pretty much stabilized.”
It’s never been clear what “decisive” actions the president was referring to. And while a variety of words come to mind when describing oil prices of late, “stabilized” isn’t one of them.
In fact, exactly five months to the day after Trump’s misplaced boast, he delivered remarks in Las Vegas and warned American consumers about the possibility of renewed volatility.
After noting recent improvements in oil prices, the president told his audience, “We may have to send it up again. We may have to — you know what happens when we send it up. But we hope we don’t have to.”
He didn’t elaborate, but given the broader context, Trump seemed to suggest that additional combat operations in Iran, which typically push prices higher, might yet happen.
The remarks came roughly two weeks after the president told Fox Business, “I think oil is going to be a little bit of a yo-yo. Goes up a little bit, goes down a little bit.”
Perhaps, though he neglected to mention that he’s the one holding the string.
Indeed, let’s not overlook the fact that Trump’s comments offered a timely reminder, three months before the midterm elections, that he has quite a bit of control over gas prices, and he’s prepared to possibly push them higher — again — on purpose.
In the same Las Vegas event, Trump made related comments about energy policy and Venezuela.
“Now I love Venezuela,” he said Wednesday. “You know, I love it. We’re doing great in Venezuela. We’re taking a lot of oil from Venezuela, and we’re getting along great with them. Billions and billions of barrels of oil is coming out of Venezuela. … It’s the old-fashioned way, right? It’s the old-fashioned way. To the victor belong the spoils, right?”
Or put another way, Trump believes the United States is entitled to a foreign country’s natural resources because we launched a military attack on it.
The White House has been accused of seeing Venezuela as more of a U.S. colony than an independent foreign nation. The president’s latest comments help reinforce the thesis.
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