With two weeks to go before the midterm elections, Iran is publicly taunting President Trump over rising gasoline prices while bracing for whatever follows the vote, The New York Times reported.
Iran has disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz since the war began on February 28. Two senior Iranian officials told Reuters that Tehran sees the weeks before the vote as a chance to pile economic pressure on the White House by keeping oil prices high.
The numbers are moving against Trump at the worst possible time. Gasoline now averages $4.33 a gallon nationally, according to AAA, while diesel has hit a record $6.33 a gallon. A Pew Research Center report found that 74 percent of Americans are concerned about gas and energy prices.
Trump has said he would either strike a deal with Iran or return to a full-scale war after the November 3 elections, while dismissing the idea that the vote shapes his Iran policy. He told the United Nations General Assembly last month that the election does not enter his mind on Iran, and that the country will never have a nuclear weapon.
In a September 29 letter to the American public, Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps accused Trump of lying about the cost of the war and the state of the US economy, writing that demand for American bonds had fallen and warning of economic pain ahead.
Source: The New York Times
