Trump predicts oil prices will ‘drop like a rock’ as Iran war nears end

US President Donald Trump has predicted that the war with Iran will end “very soon” and that global oil prices will plunge once the conflict is over, while reiterating that Tehran would never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.

At a Republican campaign rally in San Antonio, Trump defended the US military operation against Iran and said his administration was determined to eliminate Tehran’s nuclear threat. “And just as I promised, I am ensuring that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. They will never. They know that,” he told supporters.

He indicated that American involvement in the fighting was nearing its conclusion. “And we’ll be out of there soon, and you watch those oil prices come down like a rock and watch everything — everything else is coming down,” Trump said. Later, at the White House, he repeated the forecast: “Oil will drop like a rock as soon as we’re finished with the war, which will be very soon… One way or the other, we’ll be finished with it.”

Trump argued that earlier administrations had avoided confronting Iran’s nuclear programme and that military action had become unavoidable. “That should have been done by past presidents for many years… but nobody wanted to take it on,” he said. While acknowledging that the conflict had pushed up oil prices, he said the rise was smaller than many had feared, noting that some had expected prices to triple, quadruple or even go up five times.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent linked elevated headline inflation and higher borrowing costs to the Middle East conflict, calling it an “energy shock”. He said underlying inflation had eased and predicted that energy supplies would improve after the war. “Once we get on the other side of this Iran conflict, energy markets are going to be well supplied, and we will move down towards the Fed’s target and mortgage rates and the 10-year will come back down,” Bessent said.

Trump also spoke about diplomatic efforts led by his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, who has been engaged in Iran-related negotiations. “He’s working on the Iran deal and doing very well,” the President said. However, he suggested he was not keen on striking an agreement simply to end the confrontation. “I think the deal isn’t really something that I want to do, but they’re willing to offer us anything to stop, and we definitely, they will never have a nuclear weapon,” Trump added.

(Inputs from IANS)