Already a subscriber? Make sure to log into your account before viewing this content. You can access your account by hitting the “login” button on the top right corner. Still unable to see the content after signing in? Make sure your card on file is up-to-date.

A top US official has openly said that he anticipates oil will be flowing normally through the Strait of Hormuz within a month or two.

Getting into it: During an interview on ABC, National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett said there is “a lot more traffic” moving through the waterway now compared to where things stood two weeks ago, predicting that refineries in Pakistan and India that have been mostly shut down “are going to get their oil,” which would push refined product prices down globally. “It’s like a month or two until everything gets back to the refineries,” he said.

Hassett has been even more bullish elsewhere, telling Fox Business last week that gas prices would “plummet like nothing you’ve ever seen before” once the strait is back open, citing “so much excess capacity” in Saudi Arabia and the UAE that “prices should drop very, very quickly.”

The optimism comes as gas prices have soared since the war began in late February, with the national average sitting at $4.32 a gallon (after topping $4.50 last week). Hassett argued prices haven’t climbed “nearly as high as a lot of people forecasted” because consumers “found ways to adjust,” and he insisted the broader economic picture is strong.

He claimed that “real incomes, real wages are going up” and that when voters “look at their wallets,” they’ll “find that they have a lot more money.”

Despite this, our own internal polling tells a completely different story. According to an RNNBS poll conducted on our Instagram story on 5/17/26, 51% of respondents said they have less money than they did two years ago. In addition, 59% said grocery prices are higher under President Trump than under Biden. When asked about prices before the Iran war, 41% still said prices are higher under Trump than under Biden.