U.S. President Donald Trump is under pressure from European leaders, American Democrats and the media to end the war in Iran prematurely, due to rising energy costs.
But he is right to resist that pressure because Iran’s regime, its ballistic missiles and its nuclear program must be eradicated forever, even if it takes a little more time than the president’s critics had hoped.
Iran’s total defeat is actually more essential for Europe than the United States because the Islamic Republic already has long-range missiles that can reach the continent and because it depends of its fuel. America is far more energy-sufficient.
As the president has referenced in his social-media posts, the oil that passes through the Straits of Hormuz is not needed by the United States, which is a net energy exporter.
“With a little more time, we can easily open the Hormuz Strait, take the oil, and make a fortune,” Trump wrote on Truth Social recently. “It would be a ‘gusher’ for the world.”
To take the president’s vision further, Washington should institute both a ceiling and a floor for the price of American oil, which should fully meet the country’s needs before any is exported. Because the United States has enough oil for its people, there is no need for Americans to pay the global price for oil.
Right now, when gas prices are high, the ceiling would help the American people. But under normal circumstances, it is the floor that would be more relevant and would guarantee a minimum price that would help safeguard the U.S. oil industry.
To use a baseball metaphor as the season starts, it is the heads of the American oil industry that must step up to the plate immediately and realize that they have a very important role to play as the lessons from the current war are learned.
Oil executives must realize that they will never have a president in the White House as good for them as Trump. If the Republicans lose control over both houses of Congress during the upcoming midterm elections, Trump’s hands will be tied, and he will have a hard time helping them avoid harmful Democratic-sponsored bills.
The Guardian reported that congressional Democrats, led by California Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), are pushing what they call a “Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax” to combat high fuel prices and hit the oil industry that they believe is doing too well. The proposal targets large oil companies, imposing a 50% tax on the difference between current oil prices and the average price between 2015 and 2019, intending to redistribute revenue directly to consumers as rebates.
Democratic legislators, most of whom either don’t understand America’s energy needs or are uninterested in them, would also try to limit new pipelines, exploration and fracking for shale, setting the entire oil industry backward.
This is the time for the oil industry to take significant steps to maintain a handle on our energy for decades that would ensure reasonable gas prices for consumers and guarantee reasonable revenues for them.
The United States produced a record 13.6 million barrels of oil per day in 2025—more than Saudi Arabia and more than Russia. But every barrel of American oil gets priced on the international market, so when a crisis hits the Persian Gulf, the cost of every barrel in the United States rises just as much as those that come through the Straits of Hormuz.
The United States needs domestic pricing structures to insulate their own consumers from global panic pricing, as it had until 2015, with American oil fulfilling domestic demand first, at a price set by U.S. supply and demand.
When the Arab oil embargo hit in 1973, the United States had already kept crude exports minimal for decades through a patchwork of regulations. Congress formalized that approach, and the protection held for four decades.
Then, in 2015, Congress repealed it. U.S. crude exports exploded from near zero to 4 million barrels a day by 2025—85 times the 2011 level.
What Congress failed to do was build any consumer protection to replace the ban. The industry got full access to global markets. American consumers got nothing in return.
Instituting a floor for oil prices is just as important as setting a cap. A minimum price is needed to protect the oil industry, especially those taking greater risks by using more unconventional tactics like extracting shale oil.
To keep a strong incentive for domestic production, a price floor would guarantee producers a reasonable return on domestically sold oil, protecting consumers from panic pricing above, while ensuring producers are never exposed to ruinous lows below. New systems can be instituted to protect oil producers with proper contracts guaranteeing that they would not be harmed.
There is no strategy better than capping the price for American consumers. It just means standing up to the oily tycoons. The combination of encouraging American oil production and limiting its profits can only take place when there is a Republican second-term president who puts America first, like Trump.
That is why this point in time is such a unique opportunity that must not be missed, especially when the current situation with Iran brought oil prices to the forefront.
Polling consistently shows cost of living as the defining political issue of this era. There is enough time before the midterm elections to enact oil price caps and floors, which does not require new legislation.
The president maintains the authority to restrict exports under a national emergency or if the commerce secretary finds domestic supply shortages and adverse price effects, conditions that are both currently in play.
The heads of the oil industry should enable Trump to employ the skill set he has used successfully in both war and peacemaking to ensure America’s future energy needs. European leaders, congressional Democrats and the media should not stand in the way.
