President Donald Trump’s latest effort to pump the markets has flopped once again.
After Trump, 79, announced in a Truth Social post on Sunday that the U.S. would begin blockading all ships “trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” the highly volatile price of oil jumped once again as uncertainty over the conflict continues to spiral.
U.S. Central Command confirmed the move later in the day, saying that the military’s blockade of Iranian ports would begin at 10 a.m. on Monday, or 5:30 p.m. in Iran.
“Any Iranian who fires at us, or at peaceful vessels, will be BLOWN TO HELL!” the president wrote, adding that Navy ships would seek and interdict any vessel sailing in international waters that has paid a toll to Iran.
It came hours after the president appeared on Fox News to assuage the American people about his war, addressing the blockade and the higher gas prices resulting from the conflict.
The escalation followed news that the peace talks between the U.S. and Iran, led by Vice President JD Vance, fell flat, as no agreement was reached after 21 hours of negotiations.
Following Trump’s announcement, the price of U.S. crude oil shot up 8 percent to $104.24 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, went up 7 percent to $102.29 per barrel, according to the Associated Press.
On Friday, before the scheduled peace talks in Islamabad between American and Iranian officials over the weekend, the price of Brent had dropped 0.8 percent to $95.20 per barrel.
Before the conflict began on Feb. 28, Brent hovered around $70 per barrel but has since jumped as high as $119 per barrel, AP reported.
Stocks also fell in response to the news, with Dow futures falling 1.04 percent, S&P futures down 1 percent, and Nasdaq futures sinking 1.15 percent, according to CNN.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House for comment.
Trump appeared on Fox News on Sunday to try to assuage Americans about rising domestic costs that have resulted from his surprise war in the Middle East.
“We’re not going to let Iran make money on selling oil to people that they like and not people that they don’t like, or whatever it is. It’s going to be all or none,” Trump told host Maria Bartiromo on Fox News’s Sunday Morning Futures.
The president did not appear confident that oil prices would shrink before the midterms, however.
“I hope so, I mean, I think so. It could be, it could be, or the same, or maybe a little bit higher,” he said, to Bartiromo’s visible surprise.
Trump’s similar attempt last week to juice the markets ahead of their Monday opening also failed, as his obscenity-laden Truth Social rant declaring that Iran would be “living in hell” if the country didn’t reopen the Strait of Hormuz had the opposite effect.
After his Easter Sunday threats, U.S. crude rose to $113.60 per barrel—its highest in more than three years—while Brent crude shot up to $110.60 per barrel.
Since the war started on Feb. 28, Americans have felt the toll at home at the pump. As of Friday, the average price per gallon of gas nationwide has risen to $4.16, more than a dollar above its pre-war level.
