President Donald Trump accused Iran of trying to push up oil prices ahead of the midterm elections by making up attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, which he dubiously claimed was busier than before the war.
“Iran is doing everything they can to drive up the price of Oil prior to the U.S. Midterm Election,” Trump posted late Thursday morning on Truth Social. “They are even making up fake hits, mines, and everything else, because more Oil is coming through the Hormuz Strait now than it did even prior to the beginning of the Conflict.”
Available shipping data shows traffic through the strait was running about 70 percent below prewar levels, according to maritime outlet gCaptain. Kpler data cited by geopolitical expert Brett Erickson showed just 2.9 million barrels passed through on Oct. 11, compared with a prewar average of about 17.1 million a day, which he called it an “ENORMOUS drop off."
Tehran’s Revolutionary Guards have repeatedly announced mine strikes on tankers that haven’t been independently confirmed, gCaptain reported. But Erickson said Iran had struck 27 vessels in October alone, and U.S. Central Command blamed an Iranian projectile for an Oct. 14 strike on the containership GFS Pride, which forced its 21 crew members to evacuate.
Trump also wrote that “75,000 protestors lie dead in less than seven months” in Iran, and attacked the “Dumocrat Party” for not caring. He offered no source for the figure.
“IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, AND THEY WILL NEVER A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” he added.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency has verified 7,007 deaths in the first 50 days of Iran’s crackdown last year, including 6,488 protesters, more than 200 of them minors, and is still investigating thousands more cases. Higher estimates from medical staff, internal reports and outlets such as Iran International, The Guardian and Time put the toll between 30,000 and more than 36,500. Even those figures are less than half of the 75,000 Trump claimed.
The post comes as the seven-month war weighs on Republicans less than two weeks before Election Day. Last month, Trump rejected an Iranian peace proposal that would have reopened the strait and restarted nuclear talks, and oil jumped to about $108 a barrel afterward.
“They want to make a deal, but it is not the deal that I want to make,” Trump told Axios at the time.
