Treasury Secretary gives hope for gas prices as Trump tries to break the impasse over the Strait of Hormuz
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has promised that “help is on the way” as gas prices in the US creep toward $4.50 a gallon.
The pressure at the pump has worsened in recent months since the start of the Iran war, with additional concerns as the battle for the Strait of Hormuz continues.
Bessent promised that prices – which are at $4.46 per gallon, down from $3.17 this time in 2025 – will drop.
“Help is on the way as of today,” Bessent told Fox News on Monday.
“The way to think about it is that the market, because of the strait conflict, is in a deficit of about ten million barrels per day, between eight [million] and currently ten million barrels per day.’
He went on to say that Trump’s push to help American ships pass through the strait will help oil supplies grow.
“So each crew carrier that goes through has about 2 million barrels, so there are four or five crew carriers coming through a day. From the pent-up demand, we think it is more than 150 to 200 crew carriers that can come out,” he claimed.
“So I think the market will be very well supplied.”
Bessent also cited that the United Arab Emirates and OPEC pledged to pump more crude oil.
‘I am convinced that on the other side the world will be awash with oil. The UAE has left OPEC and they are pumping more. We are the largest energy superpower in the world and we have never delivered so much crude oil.”
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has promised ‘help is on the way’ as US gas prices creep towards $4.50 a gallon
Bessent promised that prices, which are at $4.46 per gallon from $3.17 this time in 2025, will start to drop
He also suggested that the price increase was “a short-term blip” and that other factors indicated that the economy is good under Donald Trump.
‘The conflict will end. Looking at the stock market, what is the stock market seeing right now? The stock market sees right through this. Corporate profits are good. Employment is good. And this gasoline, this temporary anomaly, will be over in a few weeks or a month,” he said.
Trump today confirmed Iranian attacks on ships in the Strait of Hormuz, hours after Tehran launched a series of missile and drone attacks on the UAE.
Tehran launched four missiles at a US-backed Middle Eastern ally on Monday, blowing up a major oil port following the president’s decision to reopen the strait.
Trump later threatened to “blow Iran off the face of the earth” if US warships and commercial vessels continue to be targeted.
Both sides have repeatedly rejected the others’ terms for a peace deal, leaving both Iran and the US in a geopolitical stalemate.
Previously, he wrote in a message to Truth Social: “Iran has fired some shots at unrelated nations related to the ship movement, PROJECT FREEDOM, including a South Korean cargo ship.
“Maybe it’s time for South Korea to join the mission! We shot down seven small boats or, as they like to call them, ‘fast’ boats. It’s all they have left.
He also suggested that the price increase was “a short-term blip” and that other factors indicated that the economy is good under Donald Trump
Gasoline prices over $6 per gallon are displayed at a Mobil station in Los Angeles
“Other than the South Korean ship, there has been no damage through the Strait at this time. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine will hold a press conference tomorrow morning.”
Trump’s statement comes after he last night pledged to send US warships to “escort” commercial ships through the Strait of Hormuz, and just hours after the UAE said Iran had attacked one of its petroleum industries with drones and missiles.
The Iranian attack on the Fujairah Oil Industry Zone caused a fire, officials said.
“Fujairah Civil Defense teams immediately responded to the incident and continued their efforts to control it,” the Fujairah media office said in a statement.
Fujairah is home to a major port, pipelines and other petroleum-based facilities that bypass the restricted Strait of Hormuz.
The president wrote on social media on Sunday that they would work to free ships stuck in the waterway.
“For the good of Iran, the Middle East and the United States, we have told these countries that we will divert their ships safely out of these restricted waterways so they can freely and competently conduct their business,” Trump said.
Breaking Iran’s stranglehold on the strait would alleviate global economic concerns and deprive Iran of an important source of influence.
This photo, obtained by AFP from Iran’s Tasnim news agency, shows an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) boat reportedly taking part in an operation to seize ships attempting to cross the Strait of Hormuz.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent listens as President Donald Trump speaks at a charter school in The Villages, Florida
But such efforts also risk rekindling the large-scale fighting that broke out when the US and Israel first attacked Iran on February 28, prompting the country to close the strait.
Shipping companies and their insurers are unlikely to take such a risk, as Iran has shot at ships in the waterway and vowed to continue doing so.
Iran has said the new US effort is a violation of the fragile ceasefire that has been in place for more than three weeks.
Iran’s effective closure of the strait, which runs between Iran and Oman, has caused a spike in global fuel prices and thrown the global economy into turmoil.
The US-led Joint Maritime Information Center had on Monday advised ships against crossing the strait in Oman waters and said it had established an “enhanced safety zone”.