Trump Punishes Iran By Raising The Price Americans Pay At The Pump, Resolving Long-Standing Concern That His Collapsed Ceasefire Might Not Reach The Corner Filling Station

The Filing

WASHINGTON. Vowing to hold Tehran accountable for attacking three oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, President Trump on Thursday revoked the sanctions waiver that had permitted the sale of Iranian oil, a decisive measure that within hours had transferred the cost of his response from the government of Iran to any American who owns a car.

The Treasury Department announced that it had superseded General License X, which had exempted Iranian oil sales from U.S. sanctions, with a narrower authorization called General License X1 that permits no new Iranian oil sales and requires previously approved transactions to wind down by July 17. Administration officials described the arrangement with Iran as entirely performance-based, explaining that Tehran would reap benefits only if it exhibited good behavior, and that its conduct in the strait had been wholly unacceptable and would be met with consequences. The most immediate of those consequences arrived at gas stations across the United States.

International Brent crude jumped nearly 5.5 percent to more than $75 a barrel on the news, while U.S. crude rose past $72, and retail gasoline prices began climbing the same afternoon. Analysts noted that the sanctions had been designed to deprive Iran of oil revenue, and that they were succeeding chiefly in depriving American drivers of the money required to fill their tanks. "Every time they hit us, we hit them 20," the President said, describing an exchange rate in which each Iranian provocation is answered with a proportional increase in the weekly grocery-and-gas budget of a family in Ohio.

The move came one day after Mr. Trump declared his own Iran ceasefire "over," reopening a conflict he had spent the spring citing as his signature diplomatic achievement. The President told reporters that Iran had reached out seeking to negotiate, though he expressed reservations about whether the country had earned the privilege. "They called a little while ago, they want to make a deal so badly," he said, adding that he did not know whether the Iranians were "worthy."

At press time, the President was assuring motorists that any pain at the pump was temporary, patriotic, and entirely the fault of Iran.

Who Benefits

§President Trump, who converts a spike in global oil prices into a fresh display of strength while his family's Gulf ventures deepen ties with the petrostates that profit from every barrel Iran can no longer sell.
§Trump Organization partners in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Oman, whose oil-rich patrons watch the value of their own reserves climb the instant a competitor's supply is squeezed off the market.
§American oil and gas producers, many of them administration donors, who see domestic crude leap past $72 a barrel on a single announcement.
§Saudi Arabia and the Gulf OPEC states, handed a rival's market share and a higher price for their own exports in one afternoon.
§Russia, the world's third-largest oil producer, which funds its war on a higher price for crude it did nothing to earn.
§Defense contractors, for whom a collapsed ceasefire and a reopened Iran conflict function as a standing order.
§The President's search for a decisive news cycle, well served by a barrel of oil that costs more every hour.

Sourced to the public record · presented without editorial embellishment