Rising gasoline prices are already starting to bite U.S. household finances and Americans overwhelmingly expect fuel costs will keep climbing as Donald Trump’s war with Iran crimps global oil supplies, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
Some 55% of respondents in the Tuesday-through-Thursday poll said their household finances had taken at least “somewhat” of a hit from the increases in gas prices. Among those seeing an impact, 21% said their finances were affected “a great deal.”
The average price of gasoline in America has surged by nearly a dollar per gallon since February 28 when the U.S. and Israel attacked Iran, prompting Iranian counterstrikes on the energy installations of U.S. allies and the effective closure by Iran of the Strait of Hormuz, which carries one-fifth of the global oil supply.
The economic risk is so dire that the Trump administration has mulled deploying thousands of additional U.S. troops to ensure safe passage of oil tankers through the strait, an endeavor some officials have warned might require deploying U.S. troops to Iran’s shoreline.


