Nightmare for Trump as oil prices rocket with 12 days to midterms after report reveals president plotting ‘Mother of All Bombs’ Iran blitz
Oil prices spiked on Thursday after a bombshell report revealed Donald Trump and Israel have drawn up plans to unleash new attacks on Iran once the midterm elections are over.
Brent crude oil rose 2.68 percent to $111.74 a barrel on Thursday morning. The surge is a nightmare for the president with just 12 days until the November midterms, as he scrambles to lower prices at the pump.
Soaring gas prices have sent the cost of living spiraling, leaving Republicans staring down the real prospect of losing both the House and Senate in less than two weeks.
Meanwhile, American and Israeli commanders have mapped out a ‘short but intensive’ operation targeting Iran’s nuclear sites, energy infrastructure and missile and drone arsenal, according to the New York Times.
Trump has even floated dropping the 22,000-pound GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast bomb, known as the ‘Mother of All Bombs,’ on Pickaxe Mountain, a nuclear site buried deep inside granite.
Privately, officials claim the president is smitten with the weapon partly because of its nickname.
Some US planners are convinced a three-day pounding could tip Iran’s battered economy over the edge and force Tehran to cave on its nuclear program after nearly eight months of war.
Trump vowed earlier this month not to strike before the vote, and the full US armada, including three aircraft carriers and thousands of Marines, won’t be in place until early November anyway.
Oil prices spiked on Thursday after a bombshell report revealed Donald Trump and Israel have drawn up plans to unleash new attacks on Iran once the midterm elections are over
An oil tanker burns after being hit by an Iranian strike in the ship-to-ship transfer zone at Khor al-Zubair port near Basra, Iraq, late Wednesday, March 11
American and Israeli commanders have mapped out a ‘short but intensive’ operation targeting Iran’s nuclear sites, energy infrastructure and missile and drone arsenal
Some US officials are convinced a three-day pounding could tip Iran’s battered economy over the edge and force Tehran to cave on its nuclear program after nearly eight months of war
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth flew to Israel this week to hash out the new strikes with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But there is no guarantee the attack goes ahead, with Trump repeatedly pulling the plug on fresh combat operations, including at the last minute earlier this month.
Tehran is promising a ferocious response, threatening to widen its targets beyond tankers and oil facilities to data centers and undersea internet cables across the region.
‘Our attacks will be more fierce, creative and different,’ warned Mahdi Mohammadi, a senior adviser to Iran’s chief negotiator.
Since the war began, Iran has triggered severe global oil shortages by choking off the Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that carries a fifth of the world’s oil, with speedboats, mines and explosive drones.
One Tehran analyst said Iran would hit back at any strike on Pickaxe by targeting major Saudi refineries, including Aramco’s, to send energy prices soaring and squeeze American voters.
The State Department on Wednesday ordered nonemergency government staff and their families out of Saudi Arabia, citing mounting attacks by Iran-backed Houthi militants on civilian targets.
The White House refused to discuss military planning, saying only that Trump is keeping every option open to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.
Some on Wall Street argue the hit to Americans’ wallets may be softer than in oil shocks of decades past.
‘$100 oil today is very different than $100 oil, you know, 20, 30 years ago,’ said David Wagner, head of equity at Aptus Capital Advisors.
He pointed to government figures showing gasoline swallowed roughly 5 percent of the average American’s disposable income a decade ago, around double its share today.
