Donald Trump’s top economic advisor, Kevin Hassett, was asked about rising gas prices during an interview on Tuesday, due entirely to the president’s decision to launch a war with Iran. Hassett was largely dismissive of the idea that people should be worried, going so far as to say that rising prices for consumers were the “last of our concerns,” even as countries like Australia and the UK start talking about potentially rationing gas.
“There are many questions about how long this will last, how long the Strait of Hormuz will be closed,” CNBC host Becky Quick asked Tuesday morning. “And I just wonder how you’re starting to figure this out, how you’re starting to try and anticipate what that will mean for prices.”
Hassett insisted that President Trump has been clear that this will be a 4-6 week war, something that’s simply not true. Trump has only said that the war will be done “soon” and when asked for specifics, typically says that it won’t be ending “this week,” as he did Tuesday at the White House.
“Iran’s strategy appeared to be that they could hurt the U.S. economy, and then that would make President Trump slow down,” Hassett said. “In fact, they’re not hurting the U.S. economy very much at all. While gas prices are higher, the economy as a whole is sound.”
Hassett went on to note that the U.S. is a net exporter of oil, something that’s true but ignores the fact that the price of oil is dependent on global supply. Twenty percent of the world’s oil travels through the Strait of Hormuz. It takes time for rising energy prices to ripple through an economy.
Hassett, who infamously predicted in the 1990s that the Dow would hit 36,000 very soon (it didn’t), seemed to admit that the U.S. consumer was the last thing Trump and his administration were thinking about at the moment.
“The fact is that the U.S. economy is fundamentally sound, and that if [the war in Iran] were to be extended, it wouldn’t really disrupt the U.S. economy very much at all,” Hassett said.
“It would hurt consumers, and we would have to think about, you know, if that continued, what we would have to do about that. But that’s, like, really the last of our concerns right now, because we’re very confident that this thing is going ahead of schedule.”
Hassett: “If the war were to be extended, it wouldn’t really disrupt the US economy very much at all. It would hurt consumers, and we’d have to think about what we’d have to do about that, but that’s really the last of our concerns right now.”
[image or embed]
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) March 17, 2026 at 4:53 AM
Business leaders are warning this week that rising fuel prices are going to lead to higher prices for consumers, according to Reuters. Delta CEO Ed Bastian told the news outlet that his airline’s costs have increased by $400 million in March alone. American Airlines also said it was expecting to take a $400 million hit in the first quarter, according to Reuters, due entirely to fuel costs.
The CNBC host noted that the U.S. was in a better position than many European and Asian countries because they’re so much more reliant on energy coming from the Strait of Hormuz. Some countries, like Sri Lanka, have already started rationing gas, and both the UK and Australia have started talking about whether rationing will be necessary in the near term.
The average price of a gallon of gas is currently 3.79, according to AAA, up from $2.90 just before the war started on Feb. 28. And it doesn’t look like that price is going to go down significantly anytime soon. The only question seems to be whether President Trump will keep up this war for another few weeks or if that could turn into months or even years. Because Trump hasn’t articulated a coherent reason for his war against Iran.
Hassett was asked about Trump delaying a planned meeting with China’s President Xi Jinping until the war is done. He insisted that the objectives of both the U.S. and China were aligned.
“I think that President Trump and President Xi are good friends and that when this war is over, which will be sometime soon, I’m sure they’ll get together and have a lot to talk about. And hopefully the Chinese will express some gratitude for what President Trump has done,” said Hassett.
The CNBC hosts also asked Hassett about the fertilizer and helium that passed through the Strait of Hormuz. The Trump adviser said that there were plans to get fertilizer from Venezuela and Morocco, and ignored the question of where to get more helium. Roughly 30% of the global helium supply has been disrupted, which is expected to be a huge problem for the semiconductor industry.
Helium, much of which comes from Qatar, is used to cool wafers, with about 21% of global helium now used in the manufacturing of chips that are vital for the AI revolution.
