President Donald Trump admitted Sunday he is not sure what will happen with oil prices ahead of November’s midterm elections, but added they could go “a little bit higher.”
Trump talked with Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures about oil and the status of the Strait of Hormuz.
“Is this all going to be enough, the blockade in the strait, the opening up capacity in the United States, is this going to enough to lower the price of oil and gas, sir?” said.
Trump said oil prices will go down “eventually,” but his short-term forecast was less optimistic.
“Well, it’s eventually going to be lower,” Trump said. “No, it might not happen initially, but it’s gonna go down when this is all over.”
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The president then continued, “the gas hasn’t gone up as much as I thought.”
“But regardless, even if it did… we have to stop this group of people from having [a nuclear weapon],” Trump said, adding, “You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. So I just have the greatest economy ever, everything’s going along and … I tell my economic advisors, ‘I’m sorry, fellas, we’re in great shape. We have go and take a little journey down to Iran, and we have to stop them from having a nuclear weapon.’ They all said, ‘we agree.’”
Bartiromo asked Trump about a timeline for when prices might come down.
“So do you believe the price of oil and gas will be lower before the midterm elections?” Bartiromo asked.
“I hope so,” Trump said. “I mean, I think so. It could be. It could be. Or the same. Or maybe a little bit higher. But it should be around the same. I think this won’t be that much longer.”
Oil prices went as high as $115 per barrel last week before a two-week ceasefire was announced.
It ended the week just over $89 per barrel, but seems highly likely to spike on Monday after the announcement of the blockade.
