Americans should expect higher gas prices for ‘a little while’

President Donald Trump said Thursday that Americans should expect to pay higher gas prices “for some time” as a result of the Iran war, but did not specify a timeline.

But while Trump said he was in no rush to strike a peace deal with Tehran, he claimed the war had less of an impact on both stocks and shares. oil prices more than you expected.

Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office who asked how long the war would last, Trump said, “Honestly, the stock market is at an all-time high right now. I thought it would be a 20, 25 percent drop.”

“I thought oil would go to maybe $200 per barrel. And oil is a very different number than everyone thought,” Trump said. “In fact, this country is much lower [than others] Because we have all the oil we can use.”

Brent crude futures closed at $105.07 per barrel, up nearly 3% on Thursday. West Texas Intermediate futures closed at $95.85, up around 3%. Brent crude rose from about $72 a barrel to about $120 the day before the war began.

Trump also suggested Thursday that temporarily higher prices would be rewarded with an eventual deal that prevents Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, in which they “will try to blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East.”

Trump’s confident remarks come as a majority of Americans say they are cutting spending because of shortages at the pump, according to the latest CNBC All-America Economic poll released Thursday morning.

Gas prices have risen more than 30% since the start of the war, to $4 per gallon, according to AAA.

The majority of survey respondents also said they expected the higher prices to last for at least six months.

Since February 28, when the United States and Israel first attacked Iran, the Trump administration has repeatedly stated that it expects the war to last four to six weeks.

But as the conflict neared the end of its second month, Trump changed the timeline.

Trump said about Iran in the Oval Office, “I eliminated the country militarily. I eliminated it militarily in the first four weeks. Now we sit back and see what agreement can be reached.”

“And if they don’t want to make a deal, then I’ll end it militarily with the other 25% of the targets,” he said.

He later said, “I don’t want to rush. I want to rush.” “We have plenty of time.”

Trump has repeatedly boasted about the destruction of Iran’s military, including its navy. He also insisted that the United States has “full control” of the Strait of Hormuz, which has been blocked by Iranian attacks during the war and a recent U.S. retaliatory naval blockade of Iranian ports.

In his speech on Thursday, he claimed that he had rejected Tehran’s offer to reopen the strait because the blockade increased financial pressure to make a deal.

“They would have opened it three days ago,” Trump said of Iran. “They came to us and said, ‘We will agree on opening the Strait.'”

“So I’m the one keeping it closed. We have full control of it and it will open when they make a deal or something very positive happens,” he said.