NEED TO KNOW

• The US temporarily lifted sanctions on 140 million barrels of Iranian oil already at sea
• Treasury Secretary Bessent framed it as “using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians”
• Brent crude settled at $112 a barrel Friday — its highest point of the war — despite the move

WASHINGTON, D.C. (TDR) — The Trump administration lifted sanctions Friday on 140 million barrels of Iranian oil already at sea — a one-month waiver designed to ease gas prices while the U.S. continues bombing the country that produced it.

The big picture: The move is a direct reversal of Trump’s own maximum pressure doctrine — the sanctions-heavy Iran strategy he has maintained since his first term — and signals that the economic cost of the war is now shaping military and diplomatic calculus in real time.

• Brent crude has surged roughly 60% since the war began Feb. 28, topping $112 a barrel Friday — the highest of the conflict — even after the sanctions announcement
• The Strait of Hormuz closure has removed roughly 20 million barrels per day from global supply; analysts at Goldman Sachs warn elevated prices could persist through 2027
• The US has now sanctioned or unsanctioned Iranian, Russian, and Venezuelan oil within the span of two weeks — an unprecedented sequence of emergency energy interventions

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Why it matters: American consumers are absorbing the economic cost of a war they never voted on — and the administration is now funding the adversary it’s bombing to keep that cost from becoming politically fatal.

• Gas prices hit a national average of $3.88 per gallon Thursday — up nearly $1 from one month ago, according to AAA
• Georgia became the first state to suspend fuel taxes Friday in response; Florida and Maryland declined to follow
• The International Energy Agency called the Hormuz closure the greatest disruption to global oil supply in world history

Driving the news: Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced the sanctions waiver Thursday on Fox Business, framing it in blunt strategic terms.

• Bessent, Fox Business — “In essence, we’d be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or 14 days, as we continue this campaign. So, we have lots of levers.”
• The 140 million barrels represent roughly 10 to 14 days of global supply that Iran had been selling at a discount exclusively to China — the waiver redirects it to broader markets at market price
• The US also lifted sanctions on Russian oil last week through April 11, freeing up another 130 million barrels; Venezuela sanctions were also eased Wednesday
• The administration is separately releasing 172 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and invoking the Jones Act waiver to expand domestic shipping options

What they’re saying: The sanctions move has drawn criticism from both parties — and open mockery from former Trump allies.

• Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., ranking member on the Senate Subcommittee on National Security and International Trade and Finance — “Trump is actively putting more money into the pockets of Putin and the Iranian regime, but taking away money from American families with higher gas and grocery prices.”
• Anthony Scaramucci, former Trump White House communications director, on X — “We attack Iranian oil facilities to hurt the regime, then we unsanction Iranian oil in hopes they sell it to our allies, so that we can continue to bomb the regime. It’s a bold strategy Cotton, let’s see how it pays off for ’em.”
• Amir Handjani, partner at Karv Global — “I didn’t have the U.S. dropping oil sanctions after launching a war with Israel on Iran on my bingo card two weeks ago. It tells me and the energy markets that we are in a world of trouble and the U.S. has no contingency plan to deal with it.”

Yes, but: Every lever the administration has pulled so far is a short-term patch — and experts say none of them address the actual problem.

• Patrick De Haan, petroleum analyst at GasBuddy — the sanctions move is “kind of like trying to replace a water main with a straw”
• Nicholas Mulder, sanctions expert and Cornell University professor — “The U.S. has to dial back sanctions to offset the second order effect of war. The administration appears to be conceding something in war that it was unwilling to give in peace.”
• Willy Shih, Harvard Business School professor of management — “The fundamental problem is that all these things they’re doing are measures to counteract having taken 20% of the world’s supply off the market. There is no easy fix.”

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Between the lines: The administration never publicly planned for a Hormuz closure — and is now improvising under pressure.

• Bessent and other Trump officials have denied a report that the administration had no contingency plan for the Strait of Hormuz shutting down; the sequence of emergency measures — each announced within days of the last — tells a different story
• The 140 million barrels waiver is explicitly temporary, expiring in one month — meaning if the war continues and Hormuz stays closed, the administration will face the same crisis again in mid-April with fewer emergency tools available
• Iran was already selling its oil anyway — China was buying more than 90% of it at a steep discount; the waiver redirects revenue flow but does not eliminate it, and Iran continues financing its war regardless

What’s next:

• Watch whether the one-month waiver is extended — if the war is still active in mid-April, the administration faces the same gas price crisis with the SPR partially drained
• Goldman Sachs warns elevated prices could persist through 2027 even if the strait reopens; markets are already pricing in prolonged disruption
• Congress has been largely silent on war funding; the Pentagon has sent a $200 billion request to the White House that has not yet been formally transmitted to Capitol Hill
• Senate Majority Leader Schumer has warned: “So much could be done with that money instead of a war that Donald Trump has chosen to wage without even a vote in Congress”

If the only tools available to control gas prices require financing the country the U.S. is bombing, what does that say about whether the war’s economic costs were ever factored into the decision to start it?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from CBS News, Axios, The Hill, Newsweek, NPR, CNN, and UPI.

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