President Donald Trump said last week that he wasn’t too concerned about gas prices going up as the conflict in Iran escalates. “We figured oil prices would go up, which they will. But there is no such thing as true “energy independence” in a globalized oil market, where oil prices anywhere impact oil prices everywhere. Back home, gas prices in the U.S. saw their steepest single-day rise last week since 2022, which came after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Russia was a major energy supplier for much of Western Europe, which led to bipartisan concern in the U.S. that Russia could use its energy dominance to coerce Western Europe during its invasion of Ukraine.

Source: Washington Post March 09, 2026 14:48 UTC