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Trump's energy secretary says he doesn't want to predict gas prices
CNN
Donald Trump tried to celebrate the amount of oil allegedly flowing through the embattled Strait of Hormuz, but there’s one obvious problem.
In February, US president Trump and Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu started what would become an almost seven-month long war with Iran (at the time of writing), despite Trump’s suggestion that it would be over in a matter of “weeks”.
As the war has continued on, killing 18 US service members and thousands of civilians in the Middle East, the Strait of Hormuz – a vital oil shipping lane – has emerged as a key bargaining tool, with Iran and the US embroiled in a standoff over who controls passage through it.
The reduction in flow of oil shipments through the key waterway due to the conflict has caused price of fuel to surge, but it would seem Trump wants us to feel optimistic, despite what our wallets are telling us.
In a Truth Social post, Trump claimed, “Hormuz Oil Volumes are BACK!”. The post then added that, before the war, 20 millions barrels passed through per day. It also suggested that there are now 18 million barrels passing through per day.
While the validity of this claim is debatable, many also pointed out that this still leaves a daily two million barrel deficit compared with before the conflict began.
“Great news (if it were true). But this is the same conflict his own administration helped start!
So we’re basically celebrating getting ALMOST back to where we were before everything blew up... okay,” someone wrote.
Another asked: “Are we supposed to pretend 18 million is more than 20 million?”
Someone else called it, “MAGA math”.
One person mocked: “Idk those arrows on the green bar are pretty convincing.”
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