WASHINGTON — President Trump shrugged off annual inflation spiking to 4.2% in May due to the Iran war, telling reporters that “the numbers were great” and that secret oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz had kept energy prices from spiking even higher.
“No, I love it. The numbers were great. You know what I really love? I love the inflation, but you know why?” Trump said in the Oval Office, before launching into an account of the stealth oil shipments and projecting inflation would drop “like a rock” after the war.
The awkward phrasing triggered an outpouring of surprise and ridicule on social media.
A White House official told The Post that Trump was being misunderstood and that the fuller context of his statement makes it clear he was talking about viewing the inflation number positively rather than price increases themselves.
“The Dumocrats and the losers with the Fake News have taken President Trump’s comments out of context,” this official said.
“If they actually listened to the entire answer, they’d realize that President Trump has built the greatest, strongest and most resilient economy in the world, and we’ll be better once a deal is signed.”
Immediately after the remark on inflation, Turmp described secretive efforts to alleviate the international oil shock caused by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
“Did you know we’ve been taking out millions of barrels of oil? Nobody knows that. You know who doesn’t know about it? Iran, until right now,” Trump said.
“We took out, the other night, 22 ships late at night with no lights, because they don’t have any radar, because we blasted the crap out of it,” he said.
“That is why oil is $85 a barrel.”
Trump added that “I didn’t want to ruin it” by disclosing the operation publicly, but “millions of barrels of oil was coming out. That’s why it said $85, $90 a barrel instead of $250.”
The president also insisted that the US had “the best economy we’ve ever had” before he decided to launch Operation Epic Fury toward Iran Feb. 28.
“We just hit the highest stock market in history, highest 401(k)s in history, everything was going well, and I said ‘I hate to do this to you guys,’ but Iran’s gonna have a nuclear weapon very soon, we have to go and attack,” he said.
“We hit the best economy we’ve ever had. And I said to my people, I had Scott [Bessent] and Howard [Lutnick], I had Pete [Hegseth], I had Todd [Blanche] in the room…. I get everyone in the room and say, ‘Congratulations, but now I’m going to take it down a little bit, because we can not let Iran have a nuclear weapon.’”
