Trump Is Winning the Oil-Price Jawboning Battle

Give credit where it’s due. Despite all the setbacks, Donald Trump is right that the US-Israeli war in Iran war hasn’t triggered the oil price super-spike many feared — at least not yet. “I thought it would be worse, much worse,” the American president said last week, and it’s hard to disagree. Trump, wearing his social media poster-in-chief hat, is a key reason why crude isn’t much higher. Call it the art of oil-market jawboning.

The White House is, so far, winning the fight over the oil market’s narrative — periodically raising the prospect of an end to the conflict even as the bombing carries on unabated. Three and a half weeks into the war, prices remain well within historical ranges, and far away from the thresholds associated with a full-blown “energy crisis.” But verbal volleys don’t keep refineries running, no matter how well timed. Jawboning will soon lose its potency in a longer war.