Trump's attacks on Iran are hitting his own economic vulnerability: 'Political liability'

A new economic fallout broke out Monday after President Donald Trump ordered attacks on Iran — prompting gasoline and oil prices to surge, according to reports.

Trump's military move could have a significant impact on his energy agenda and gas prices as midterms approach, something he has boasted about since his return to the White House in his second term, Bloomberg reported. As prices rise, it could be a challenge for the president and his Republican Party this fall.

"Gasoline futures jumped as much as 9% Monday as the flow of tankers carrying crude and fuel through the Strait of Hormuz all but ceased," according to Bloomberg.

The American Automobile Association reported that by Sunday, the average retail price in the United States had hit $3 a gallon, which is the highest amount in three months. Just last week, Trump claimed that gasoline reached $2.30 a gallon in most states and that the national average hit $2.98.

Gasoline and oil prices were expected to keep climbing, according to the American Automobile Association.

“Americans have very staunch beliefs on how much they should pay for gasoline,” Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy’s head of petroleum analysis, told Bloomberg. “So it does become a political liability.”

President Donald Trump ignored private warnings from senior aides about the potential risks of a large-scale military strike on Iran, according to a new report.

The 79-year-old president repeatedly sought out briefings on whether military action would allow to project strength domestically, but some White House officials expressed concerns that the operation could disrupt Republican chances of keeping their congressional majorities, reported Reuters.

"Top aides cautioned that U.S. intelligence did not provide a clear guarantee that escalation could be avoided once strikes began and that the administration risked tying its political fortunes to an unpredictable aftermath," Reuters reported. "Trump ultimately sided with those who believed decisive action would show him as a strong leader, even if it carried long-term risks, the officials said."

Those officials cautioned that the political fallout would be a gradual "slow-burn effect," especially if the conflict lasts a long time and carries a large number of American casualties, rather than an immediate backlash, but polling over the weekend found only one if four Americans support the strikes.

"One informal Trump adviser, who has been to the White House in recent days, argued that the main electoral danger lies not with middle-of-the-road or independent voters, but with members of Trump's MAGA movement, for whom non-interventionism was a key part of the president's pitch during the 2024 campaign," Reuters reported.

White House aides have purportedly been modeling the effects of a prolonged military operation in Iran, and they have found America casualties and higher fuel costs could endanger GOP midterm chances, especially in the U.S. House.

"A senior Republican operative working to hold onto the party's congressional majorities said foreign intervention carries more political risk than upside for Trump," Reuters reported. "Foreign policy victories oftentimes do not register with voters, though foreign policy quagmires typically do."

President Donald Trump took time out of an update on his strikes on Iran to rant about his plans to build a ballroom at the White House.

During a Monday event at the White House, Trump said that he had projected "four to five weeks" for the operation in Iran before speaking about his ballroom plans.

"In this beautiful building, isn't it?" he said. "We're adding on to the building a little bit. Beautiful? We're improving the building. See that nice drape? When that comes down, right now, you see a very, very deep hole. But in about a year and a half from now, you're gonna see a very, very beautiful building."

"In fact, it looks so nice, I don't think I'll even, I think I'll save money on the doors because it can't get more beautiful than that," he continued. "I picked those drapes in my first term. I always like gold. But I think we can save a lot of money. I just saved curtains. But, and it will be, it'll be spectacular. It'll be the most beautiful ballroom. I believe it, because I built many a ballroom. I believe it's going to be the most beautiful ballroom anywhere in the world."

Trump noted that the sound of "hammering" could be heard outside the building.

"And when you hear all that hammering out there, you know why the first lady is not thrilled exactly," he revealed. "She said, will the pile drivers ever stop? You know, they go from 6 in the morning till 11.30 in the evening. Can you imagine? Here? You know what? To me, that's a beautiful sound. She doesn't like it. I love it."

"But when I hear that sound, that beautiful sound behind me, it means money, so I like it," he added. "But my wife isn't thrilled. She said, this is getting crazy. I said, don't worry about it. We'll be all finished up in a few months."

President Donald Trump has been surprised by Iran's response to joint U.S.-Israel airstrikes that took out their supreme leader.

The 79-year-old president spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper for a nine-minute phone interview Monday morning to discuss his order over the weekend to decapitate Iranian leadership, and Trump said he was surprised that Iran had retaliated by striking other Arab countries in the region, including Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

“We were surprised,” Trump said. “We told them, ‘We’ve got this,’ and now they want to fight, and they’re aggressively fighting. They were going to be very little involved and now they insist on being involved.”

"[They] shot into a hotel, they shot into an apartment house," he added. "It just made them angry. They love us, but they were watching. There was no reason for them to be involved ... that was probably the biggest surprise.”

Trump said the initial strikes were successful and threatened more to come.

“We’re knocking the crap out of them,” Trump said. “I think it’s going very well. It’s very powerful. We’ve got the greatest military in the world and we’re using it.”

"We haven’t even started hitting them hard," he added. "The big wave hasn’t even happened. The big one is coming soon.”

The president was asked how long the military operation might last, and he expressed hope that it would end within weeks.

“I don’t want to see it go on too long," Trump said. "I always thought it would be four weeks, and we’re a little ahead of schedule.”

Trump said his team attempted to negotiate with the Iranians on ending their nuclear ambitions but complained that “we couldn’t make a deal with these people.”

“They had all that enriched stuff," he said. "They looked at redoing it there, but it was in such bad shape, the mountain had basically collapsed."

He argued that military strikes would succeed where diplomacy had not.

“We don’t have to worry about agreements," Trump said. “You go back 37 years, really 47 years, close to 50, look at what’s happened and all the death. People in the military walking around with no legs, walking around with no arms, their faces shattered."

“Over the last 47 years, I said, ‘give me all of the attacks,'" he added. "If I told you all of them I’d still be talking."