Trump Is Fighting Iran AND Fighting for Your Gas Bill. Here’s How.

April 25, 2026  ·  Republican Column Staff

9M+ barrels reached U.S. ports via waiver

172M barrels released from petroleum reserve

6 Iranian oil ships stopped by U.S. Navy

90 days Jones Act waiver extended Friday

No president in modern history has taken the Iran threat as seriously as Donald Trump — and right now, he’s proving it. While confronting the regime that held American hostages, funded terrorism across three continents, and spent decades racing toward a nuclear weapon, Trump is simultaneously working overtime to protect American consumers from the economic fallout. That’s not a contradiction. That’s leadership.

On Friday, the White House announced a 90-day extension of the Jones Act waiver — a practical, results-driven move that is already delivering. The administration reports that more than 9 million barrels of U.S. oil reached domestic ports faster as a direct result of the original waiver, with supply arriving at American ports more than 70% faster than before. The data was clear. The president acted on it. That’s what a results-focused administration looks like.

The Jones Act — a 1920 law requiring that goods shipped between U.S. ports travel on American vessels — was designed to protect domestic maritime workers, and in normal times it serves a purpose. But these aren’t normal times. The Strait of Hormuz, which carries roughly 20% of the world’s oil supply, has been bottlenecked by Iranian aggression. Suspending the Jones Act restrictions lets more ships move American energy to American consumers faster. Every barrel matters right now.

“You know what they get for high prices? Iran without a nuclear weapon that is going to try and blow up one of our cities or blow up the entire Middle East.”

President Trump — making the case plainly and without apology.

It’s worth stepping back and remembering how we got here. For years, the Obama and Biden administrations coddled Tehran — offering sanctions relief, shipping pallets of cash, and pursuing nuclear agreements that Iran used as cover while continuing to develop its weapons program and fund proxy forces across the Middle East. The result was a more powerful, more emboldened Iran. Trump inherited that mess and chose to actually deal with it, instead of kicking the can down the road for the next president.

The price of that decision is showing up at the pump, and the president isn’t hiding from that. He said so directly. What he’s also doing — something you won’t hear from the mainstream media — is deploying every available economic lever to cushion the blow. The Jones Act waiver. The release of 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. A temporary suspension of Russian oil sanctions to increase global supply. These are aggressive, proactive steps taken by an administration that is managing a wartime energy economy while also prosecuting the campaign against Iran’s nuclear program.

The blockade is working. The U.S. Navy has stopped six ships carrying Iranian oil, squeezing the regime’s economy. Only 93 vessels have crossed the strait since the blockade began — Tehran is feeling it. Meanwhile, companies rerouting cargo through the Panama Canal — paying as much as $4 million per crossing — are a testament to how thoroughly the U.S. has reshaped the strategic landscape. Iran’s ability to hold the world’s energy supply hostage is being dismantled, one blocked ship at a time.

Yes, gas is higher than we’d like it to be. The national average is $4.05 a gallon. Nobody is pretending that’s comfortable. But the alternative — an Iran with nuclear weapons, flush with oil revenue, emboldened by years of Western appeasement — would cost Americans and the world far more in the long run. Trump is playing the long game. He’s also doing the immediate work to make sure the short-term pain is as manageable as possible.

That’s the full picture. And it’s one the president’s critics in the media and on the left would rather you not see.