Trump says oil prices that spiked because of Iran war likely won’t come down until after midterms

U.S. Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump said Wednes­day that oil prices that have surged be­cause of the Iran war like­ly won’t come down un­til af­ter U.S. midterm elec­tions.

Oil prices jumped more than 3% to­day, push­ing in­ter­na­tion­al Brent crude past the $100 thresh­old for the first time since Ju­ly as salvos be­tween the U.S. and Iran es­ca­lat­ed.

“Right af­ter the elec­tion, oil prices are go­ing to be tum­bling down­ward,” Trump said. “I think it’s go­ing to take a lit­tle bit longer than the midterm.”

Trump, in an ex­change with re­porters be­fore trav­el­ing to Dal­las for the midterm Re­pub­li­can con­ven­tion, added that he be­lieves Iran will fi­nal­ly re­lent af­ter the piv­otal elec­tions are held in the U.S.

“I think the war’s go­ing to end im­me­di­ate­ly af­ter the elec­tion be­cause they can’t hold out any longer,” Trump said.

The pres­i­dent at the out­set of the war said it would last a mat­ter of weeks. The war is now in its sev­enth month. —WASH­ING­TON (AP)

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Sto­ry by AAMER MAD­HANI | As­so­ci­at­ed Press