From PBS NewsHour.
President Donald Trump blamed the rise in gas prices on Iran’s attacks against neighboring countries in the Middle East, which he said have “nothing to do” with the ongoing war.
“This short-term increase has been entirely the result of the Iranian regime launching deranged terror attacks against commercial oil tankers in neighboring countries that have nothing to do with the conflict,” Trump said of gas prices during his primetime address at the White House on Wednesday.
The president’s comments come as AAA reported Wednesday that the national average price for regular gas is $4.06 per gallon — more than a dollar per gallon higher than it was one month ago.
The president called Iran’s attacks against commercial oil tankers “yet more proof” that the country’s regime can “never be trusted with nuclear weapons.” If Iran were ever to get a nuclear weapon, he said, the regime will “use them quickly” and the consequences would be “decades of extortion, economic pain and instability worse than we can ever imagine.”
The U.S. has “has never been better prepared economically to confront this threat,” Trump said, citing stock market highs, business investments and domestic oil and gas production.
“There is no country like us anywhere in the world, and we are in great shape for the future,” Trump said.
The president addressed the nation in prime time Wednesday for the first time since the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran.
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