{"id":15411,"date":"2026-03-11T00:41:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T00:41:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zoominfinancial.com\/?p=15411"},"modified":"2026-03-11T00:41:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T00:41:22","slug":"trump-administrations-mixed-messaging-sparks-wild-swings-in-oil-markets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zoominfinancial.com\/?p=15411","title":{"rendered":"Trump administration\u2019s mixed messaging sparks wild swings in oil markets"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free<\/p>\n<p class=\"article__content-sign-up-topic-description o3-type-body-base\">Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world<\/p>\n<p><iframe class=\"article__content-sign-up-iframe close\" scrolling=\"no\" id=\"signUpIframe\" data-prev-url=\"\/register\/in-article-sign-up?ft-content-uuid=26f34fbf-226e-4957-beda-a9dbd2e0477a&amp;newsletter-id=65b8fec772badb00166eafc6\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<div id=\"article-body\">\n<p>Chris Wright, the US energy secretary, on Tuesday afternoon declared a huge potential breakthrough for energy markets rattled by the Iran war. <\/p>\n<p>With the conflict raging, Wright wrote on X that the US Navy had \u201csuccessfully escorted\u201d an oil tanker through the Strait of Hormuz \u2014 just hours after General Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said the military was still exploring \u201coptions\u201d for protecting vessels in the strategic passage for ships transiting in and out of the Gulf.<\/p>\n<p>But the relief was shortlived: in less than two hours, the post was deleted and the statement denied by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. <\/p>\n<p>The episode triggered wild swings in the oil market, with crude initially plunging on signs the vital waterway could soon be reopened and then surging after Leavitt doused the hopes. <\/p>\n<p>It has also exposed the confusion surrounding Donald Trump\u2019s messaging around the war, which has sent US petrol prices surging and upended the president\u2019s efforts to convince voters that he is addressing the country\u2019s affordability crisis in the run-up to November\u2019s midterm elections. <\/p>\n<figure id=\"emahqrax\" class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\"  width=\"2290\" height=\"1527\"><\/source><source media=\"(max-width: 490px)\"  width=\"1527\" height=\"1527\"><\/source><\/picture><figcaption class=\"n-content-picture__caption o3-editorial-typography-caption\"><span>White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, pictured, insisted President Donald Trump was seeking \u2018unconditional surrender\u2019 from Iran<\/span><span> <!-- -->\u00a9 Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Trump on Monday insisted the conflict would end \u201cvery soon\u201d as he faced growing pressure to cut short a war in the Middle East that is suffering from lacklustre public support. <\/p>\n<p>The president\u2019s comments helped soothe oil markets, pushing international benchmark Brent crude down to about $90 a barrel by Monday evening from a high of nearly $120 earlier in the day. <\/p>\n<p>But by Tuesday, Trump and his top officials were no longer signalling that an end was in sight. <\/p>\n<p>Pete Hegseth, defence secretary, instead hailed the \u201cmost intense\u201d day of US strikes since the conflict began on February 28.<\/p>\n<p>Leavitt insisted Trump was seeking \u201cunconditional surrender\u201d from Iran to ensure that it no longer posed a threat to the US and its allies. When asked how the war ended on CNBC, Steve Witkoff, Trump\u2019s special envoy for peace missions, said: \u201cI don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"yujenubd\" class=\"n-content-image n-content-image--full\" data-component=\"image-set\"><picture><source media=\"(min-width: 700px)\"  width=\"3500\" height=\"2500\"><\/source><source media=\"(max-width: 490px)\"  width=\"1500\" height=\"2000\"><\/source><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/zoominfinancial.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/https:\/\/d6c748xw2pzm8.cloudfront.net\/prod\/996ab360-1cd3-11f1-b446-61e6abfd8634-standard.png\" alt=\"Line chart of Brent ($ per barrel) showing Trump administration's mixed messaging roils oil market\" data-image-type=\"graphic\" width=\"3500\" height=\"2500\" loading=\"lazy\"><\/picture><\/figure>\n<p>Democrats on the Senate armed services committee who received a classified briefing on the war on Tuesday were unconvinced that the president was on the verge of ending US strikes on Iran. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI can tell you what I heard is not just concerning, it is disturbing,\u201d Nevada senator Jacky Rosen said. \u201cI\u2019m not sure what the end game is or what their plans are. They certainly have not made their case.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>With Trump not ruling out sending ground forces to Iran and openly considering sending special forces to seize the country\u2019s enriched uranium stockpiles, Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut senator who also attended the briefing, said he was \u201cdissatisfied and angry\u201d, and had \u201cmore questions than answers\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe seem to be on a path toward deploying American troops on the ground in Iran to accomplish any of the potential objectives here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>By the end of Tuesday, despite the White House\u2019s attempt to limit the damage to energy markets by backing joint G7 action, Brent crude was hovering around $88 a barrel, about $20 a barrel above where it stood one month ago.<\/p>\n<p>The confusion prompted Abbas Araghchi, Iran\u2019s foreign minister, to accuse US officials on X of \u201cposting fake news to manipulate markets\u201d. <\/p>\n<p>This is creating a potentially brutal political environment for Republicans heading into November\u2019s elections when Trump\u2019s party hopes to retain control of both houses of Congress \u2014 especially because the party campaigned on bringing down prices and avoiding global conflicts in 2024. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe American people by and large don\u2019t like foreign adventurism and certainly not when it impacts their wallet,\u201d said John Feehery, a Republican strategist and former congressional aide. <\/p>\n<p>He added Republicans were \u201ccompletely freaked out\u201d about the midterms and the war did not help. \u201cYou don\u2019t want gas prices up to $4 [a gallon],\u201d he said. <\/p>\n<p>Petrol prices have jumped from less than $3 a gallon to about $3.50 since the US attacked Iran on February 28. <\/p>\n<p>The administration is \u201cunder a tremendous amount of pressure to figure out what the endgame is because the goalposts keep shifting\u201d, added Ron Bonjean, another Republican strategist. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it\u2019s tethered to the market: when gas prices are going up, Trump is saying that we\u2019re almost done. But when analysts say that gas prices will go down in the short term\u2009.\u2009.\u2009. that encourages the White House to think, well, maybe we can keep going a little longer and weather this,\u201d Bonjean said. <\/p>\n<p>Hegseth admitted Trump alone would decide when to end the war. \u201cHe gets to control the throttle,\u201d the defence secretary said on Tuesday. \u201cHe\u2019s the one deciding.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>Additional reporting for Jamie Smyth<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Read the full article <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/26f34fbf-226e-4957-beda-a9dbd2e0477a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free Your guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the world&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15412,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-15411","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-business"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Trump administration\u2019s mixed messaging sparks wild swings in oil markets | ZoomInFinancial<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump\u2019s second term means for Washington, business and the worldChris Wright, the US\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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