‘If they rise, they rise’

By Steve Holland, Jarrett Renshaw, Nandita Bose and Bo Erickson

WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) – President Donald Trump said on Thursday he was not concerned about rising U.S. gas prices driven by the widening Iran conflict, telling Reuters in an exclusive interview that the U.S. military operation was his priority.

“I don’t have any concern about it,” ‌he said, when asked about the higher prices at the pump. “They’ll drop very rapidly when this is over, and if they rise, they rise, but this is far ‌more important than having gasoline prices go up a little bit.”

The comments mark a shift in tone for the president, who touted a drop in gas prices in his State of the Union address last month and at a Texas ​rally focused on energy that took place just hours before the U.S. launched its air strikes on Saturday.

Political analysts say a persistent rise in gas prices could hurt Republicans in the November midterm elections when control of the U.S. Congress will be at stake. Voters are already unhappy about the high cost of living and Trump’s stewardship of the economy.

Despite Trump’s public efforts to play down the price rises, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Energy Secretary Chris Wright have both engaged with oil CEOs to gauge possible options on combating rising energy prices, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on ‌Thursday.

Another White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said there was ⁠a scramble across the White House energy and national security teams to develop measures aimed at bringing down gas prices.

The official said Wiles had warned in White House meetings that failure to act on price rises would be “catastrophic” for Republicans in the elections.

Trump has outlined a four-to-five-week timeline for the ⁠military campaign against Iran, but political and military experts have questioned it, noting that the U.S. government has yet to articulate its end goal while the conflict continues to spread to the region and beyond.

In the interview, Trump said he was not looking to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the largest emergency crude stockpile in the world, and that he was confident the Strait of Hormuz, the critical channel for oil shipping ​near ​Iran, will remain open because Iran’s navy is at the “bottom of the sea.”

Global oil prices have jumped 16% since ​the war started on Saturday, as the spreading conflict disrupted Middle East ‌supplies.

The national average cost of gas has risen 27 cents since last week to $3.25 per gallon, according to AAA, a U.S. travel organization that tracks fuel prices. The current national average is 15 cents higher than a year ago.

Trump said the costs “haven’t risen very much.”

WHITE HOUSE BETTING ON SHORT CAMPAIGN

The White House is betting the conflict with Iran – and the resulting pain at the gas pump – will prove short-lived.

White House energy advisers have told Trump aides the initial sticker shock in fuel markets has been less severe than many feared and have urged patience, according to two people who were granted anonymity to describe internal deliberations.

The advisers warned that any intervention by the Trump administration that fails to quickly bring down prices could rattle markets and prove counterproductive.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio ‌said early this week that the administration was rolling out a package of measures to combat rising energy ​prices, but the only plan unveiled so far is U.S.-backed risk insurance for oil tankers and the promise of potential ​naval escorts through the Strait of Hormuz.

Three energy executives told Reuters the White House ​has few great options to push down energy prices.

“When you look across the menu of policy options, domestically or within other countries, they can be helpful, ‌but they don’t move the needle far,” one energy executive said, speaking ​on condition of anonymity so they could speak candidly ​about the administration’s policies. “I think the primary focus is … to do whatever they can to restore transits through the Strait of Hormuz itself.”

Officials are also discussing a wide array of other options, including a federal gasoline tax holiday and loosening environmental regulations around summer gasoline that will allow higher blends of ethanol, according to the two sources familiar with ​the internal deliberations.

Officials were also weighing a potential release from the ‌Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the sources said, but the president ruled out that option – at least for now – in his comments to Reuters.

Congressional Republican leaders, like House Speaker Mike ​Johnson, have also dismissed concerns about rising gas prices, even as the party plans to focus its midterm election strategy on economic successes.

(Reporting by Steve Holland, additional ​reporting by Bo Erickson, Nandita Bose and Jarrett Renshaw, editing by Ross Colvin and Nia Williams)