President Donald Trump speaks during a health care event in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, April 23, 2026.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images
President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Americans should expect to pay higher electricity prices “for a while” because of the war on Iran, without specifying a timeline.
But Trump said he was in no rush to make a peace deal with Tehran, while saying the war had little impact on both stocks. oil prices than he expected.
“I have to be honest, the stock market is at a high level right now. I thought we would have gone down 20, 25 percent,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office who asked how long the war would last.
“I thought oil was going to go up to $200 a barrel. And oil is a much different number than anybody thought,” Trump said. “Actually, this country is very low [than others] because we have all the oil we can use.”
Brent crude futures rose nearly 3% on Thursday to close at $105.07 a barrel. West Texas Intermediate futures advanced nearly 3% to close at $95.85. Brent crude has risen to around $120 a barrel from around $72 a barrel the day before the war.
Trump also asserted on Thursday that temporarily higher prices would be rewarded with a deal that ultimately prevents Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, with which they “will try to blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East.”
Trump’s confident comments came as a majority of Americans say they have cut spending because of pain at the pump, according to the latest CNBC All-America Economic survey released Thursday morning.
Gasoline prices have risen more than 30% to a high of $4 per gallon since the war began, according to AAA.
The majority of survey respondents also said they expect higher rates to last at least six months.
Since the US and Israel began attacking Iran on Feb. 28, the Trump administration has repeatedly said they expect the war to last about four to six weeks.
But as the dispute now nears the end of its second month, Trump has adjusted the timeline.
“I took the country out militarily. In the first four weeks, I took it out militarily. Now what we do is sit and see what agreement “can be reached, said Trump in the Oval Office about Iran.
“And if they don’t want to make an agreement, I will end it militarily with another 25% of the terms,” he said.
“I don’t want to rush. I want to take my time,” he said later. “We have plenty of time.”
Trump has been bragging that Iran’s military, including its navy, has been destroyed. He also emphasized that the US has “complete control” in the Strait of Hormuz, which was released during the war by Iranian attacks and, more recently, in retaliation for the blockade of US ships in Iranian ports.
In the words of Thursday, he said that he has rejected Tehran’s proposal to reopen the strait because the blockade increases the financial pressure for them to make an agreement.
“They were going to open it three days ago,” Trump said of Iran. “They came to us and said we will agree to open the strait.”
“So I’m the one who kept it closed. We have complete control over it, and it will open if they do a deal or something really good happens,” he said.
