President Donald Trump said he plans to waive oil-related sanctions, have the US Navy escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz and predicted the war with Iran would resolve “very soon” as he confronted mounting economic and political pressures after days of dramatic fluctuations in oil markets.
The president said that he did not believe the conflict would be over this week, but insisted the operation was ahead of schedule and looked to shore up investors increasingly concerned about energy prices. He vowed bombing “at a much, much harder level” if Iran disrupted oil supplies alongside his sanctions pledge.
“We’re looking to keep the oil prices down,” Trump said at a news conference at his resort in Doral, Florida. “They went artificially up because of this excursion.”
The president did not offer additional specifics, beyond acknowledging he had discussed the topic with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call earlier Monday. Russia has faced sanctions on its oil revenue in an international bid to deprive the country of revenue over its war in Ukraine.
But as a whole, Trump’s remarks underscored a new willingness by the White House to publicly indicate that it could be moving soon to attempt to wrap up the conflict.
“Together with our Israeli partners, we’re crushing the enemy in an overwhelming display of technical skill and military force,” Trump told Republican lawmakers earlier Monday. At the press conference, the president claimed the US had hit 5,000 targets in the country, said Iran’s missile capability was down to 10%, and that drone launches from the country had decreased 83%. The US military objectives could be described as “pretty well complete,” Trump said.
At the same time, Trump acknowledged unanswered questions that remained about the leadership in Tehran and vowed he would “not relent until the enemy is totally and decisively defeated.” The president said that while the US had sunk more than 50 Iranian ships, a prolonged conflict could see the US bomb additional “important targets” including electricity production facilities.
“We’ve already won in many ways, but we haven’t won enough,” he said. “We go forward more determined than ever to achieve ultimate victory that will end this long-running danger once and for all.”
The comments underscored the challenges ahead for Trump, who will need to reconcile his promises of total victory with the economic and political consequences of continuing the war.
US stocks recovered from losses earlier Monday, after the president made intial comments signaling an openness to ending the conflict to CBS News. Those comments sent the S&P 500 up as much as 1%, after a CBS reporter posted the comments on X. Oil and US Treasury yields fell.
US oil futures fell below $90 a barrel post settlement after surging above $119 early in the session in a volatile trading day. Markets eased as the world’s largest economies considered a coordinated effort on emergency energy supplies and Trump’s comments signaled he could seek a conclusion to the conflict.
Still, the Strait of Hormuz remained all but closed, with no finalized plans on how nations will safeguard ships passing through the key waterway.
Trump told CBS the Strait of Hormuz was seeing more ship traffic and that he is “thinking about taking it over.” It was not immediately clear what specific actions the president was contemplating.
Trump also spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin about Iran and the war in Ukraine, Tass reported Monday, citing Yuri Ushakov, an aide to the Russian leader.
The US president, already facing domestic concerns over persistent inflation ahead of November midterm elections, must now grapple with rising gasoline pump prices as the war shows no letup. On Sunday, he called $100 oil a “small price to pay” and said the cost “will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over.”