Trump Goon Mocked for Bizarre Admission on Iran War
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent was widely criticized for saying he didn’t “really understand” Thursday’s spike in oil prices—moments after he pledged the “toughest sanctions in history” against Iran.
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Bessent, reacting to the spike during a press gaggle outside the White House, said, “Anything that happens within a 24-hour period is noise.”
“I think that once the market understands that we are focusing on fiscal consolidation, and that we are trying to bring the market back into equilibrium in a thinly traded market, I think, you know, I’m confident that bonds will continue declining. We’ve got a spike in oil prices today that I don’t really understand,” he said. “Our announcement is for economic action, and I think that the economic action will mean that oil prices will come down sooner.”
The Treasury secretary, 63, had just told CNBC that the Trump administration would be amping up its effort to end the war against Iran: “We have the blockade, and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history. And I will tell you, this will work.”
Oil prices are higher than they were before Trump began the war in late February. Crude oil currently stands at about $88 per barrel—up from $67 on the eve of the war. Prices peaked in April at about $112.
The national average for gasoline is also up compared with February—$4.10 per gallon compared to $2.98, according to AAA.
The Strait of Hormuz, the passageway through which about one-fifth of the global oil supply normally flows, is reportedly has millions fewer barrels passing through it each day than the Trump administration claims.
And so Bessent’s uncertainty about the cause of the day’s spike in oil was fodder for critics online.
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“Literally everyone else knows,” Jessica Tarlov, Fox News’ liberal co-host of The Five, wrote on X.
Democratic Rep. Ted Lieu weighed in: “Hint: Oil prices are very high because trump engaged in an unconstitutional action that starts with W and ends in R.”
Arizona Sen. Ruben Gallego echoed that point, writing, “Maybe your boss’s stupid war in Iran?”
Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock did the same: “Could it have anything to do with the war you all started?”
Meanwhile, California Gov. Gavin Newsom came up with a nickname for the Treasury secretary: “Brain-dead Bessent.”
The Treasury Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Daily Beast.
The war, which Trump initially said would last only a few weeks, is in its sixth month.
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