Trump signals US will tap oil reserve to ease Iran price shocks

President Donald Trump indicated he would tap the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve to help ease oil prices that have soared amid the war with Iran.

“We’ll do that and then we’ll fill it up,” Trump said Wednesday in an interview with local television station WKRC during a visit to the Cincinnati area. “Right now, we’ll reduce it a little bit and that brings the prices down.”

Earlier Wednesday, the International Energy Agency agreed to discharge 400 million barrels from emergency oil reserves, its largest-ever release, as governments seek to contain a price spike driven by the Middle East war.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve currently contains about 415 million barrels, little more than half its capacity, following a series of drawdowns by the Biden administration. Those included a record sale of 180 million barrels to help lower gasoline prices after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Trump is facing political pressure to address rising fuel prices that have been driven up by the spike in oil. November’s midterm elections will hinge in large part on Americans’ attitudes toward the cost of living, and the polls show the public giving the president poor marks for his handling of the economy.