Donald Trump boasted, “I love the inflation,” on Wednesday as Americans are slammed by soaring prices due to the president’s war in Iran.
Prices are up 4.2 percent from a year ago as inflation skyrocketed at its fastest pace in three years. Gas prices are up more than 40 percent from a year ago while the cost of oil is up nearly 59 percent, the Consumer Price Index showed.
But when asked about it in the Oval Office on Wednesday, the president dismissed the burden on Americans with a bizarre claim about Iran.
“I love the inflation. You know why? Because as soon as this war is over, you know I can say it now, something you didn’t know, do you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil?” Trump said.
“Nobody knows it? Iran, until right now. We took out the other night 22 ships late at night with no lights because they don’t have any radar because we blasted the crap out of it,” Trump continued.
When the Daily Beast asked the White House for clarification on where exactly the U.S. was taking oil from in the dead of night, it pointed to a new Truth Social post by the president.
“Last month, I directed our Great U.S. Military to execute a secret mission to support Oil Tankers and other Commercial Ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Today, I am pleased to announce that this effort has resulted in more than 100 MILLION Barrels of Oil making its way through the Strait, and into the Open Market. More than 200 Commercial Ships have safely traveled through the Strait,” Trump wrote. “This wildly successful effort is because the UNITED STATES of AMERICA CONTROLS the Strait of Hormuz — NOT Iran. Their military is defeated, and their economy is lost. It’s over for Iran!"
At the same time, the U.S. emergency oil reserve is shrinking fast as the war drags on, nearing critical low levels.
But instead, the president called the inflation numbers “great,” went on to brag about the economy before the war, and claimed it was “amazing” that oil was trading at $85 a barrel rather than $250. He also touted the strength of the stock market.
The president’s praise of inflation comes as the war in Iran has stretched on for more than three months, and the U.S. has struggled to reach a deal despite Trump repeatedly claiming an agreement was imminent.
But the U.S. carried out “self-defense” strikes on Tuesday after Iran downed a U.S. Army Apache helicopter near the coast of Oman on Monday.
The president spent the morning on Wednesday freaking out about Iran on Truth Social and making threats that “now they will have to pay the price” for taking so long to negotiate a deal.
Asked about it in the Oval Office hours later, Trump said the U.S. would be “attacking them very hard.”
“We’ll see what happens, but we hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them again hard today in case you missed it,” Trump said. “We’ll see what happens with the deal.”
The president went on to repeat his claim that they are “really close to a deal, but they keep tapping us along. They keep playing us for suckers.”
When pressed about inflation, Trump said the U.S. “took a little journey down to Iran” and tried to compare it to the military operation in Venezuela, despite it stretching on much longer. But despite the ongoing war and strikes this week, the president insisted he thinks Iran wants to make a deal.
Trump went on to claim again that prices would come down like a “rock” when the war ends, despite analysts warning prices would come down much more slowly.
