President Trump will meet with U.S. oil executives over the price of oil. This comes after Army Secretary Dan Driscoll submitted his resignation following months of friction with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Page A3From§Eachthe matinee edition — 1 September 2026
Oil prices rise on renewed Iran strikes, cutting Iranian students off from exams; Trump meets oil executives.
As it ran on the front
Follow this in order, because the order is the point. The U.S. renews strikes on Iran, and oil prices jump again — funny how that works, war and the price of a barrel are basically dance partners at this point, they know each other's steps by now.
Then the sanctions attached to that same fight reach out and grab something you wouldn't expect: kids. Iranian students, cut clean off from the standardized tests they need to study abroad. Not soldiers. Not officials. Students trying to take a test. That's the sanctions regime working exactly as designed, except the design apparently includes a kid's transcript as collateral.…
…(cont) And then — this is the part I want you to sit with — the president sits down with oil executives. Not with the students. Not with anybody paying more at the pump this month. With the guys who make money on both ends of this, the strike and the price spike that follows it. That's not a coincidence, that's a receiving line.
I've said it before: every time this country's foreign policy gets 'complicated,' there's a barrel of oil sitting somewhere getting more valuable, and there's a meeting on the calendar with the guys who own the barrel. The kid who can't take the test doesn't know why the door closed. The oil executive knows exactly why he got the meeting, weeks in advance, and cleared his schedule for it.
This isn't a conspiracy theory. It's an itinerary. Strikes happen, prices rise, a kid's exam gets cancelled, and the guys who profit off all three get a seat at the table before the invoice even reaches anybody else's mailbox. Next time you're doing math on whether the fill-up can wait another day, remember there's a meeting happening at the same time about how to keep that number exactly where it is. That's not policy failing to notice the price of gas. That's policy noticing it very carefully, from the other side of the table.
“Strikes push oil up, sanctions push a kid's test date off the calendar, and the president's schedule somehow clears for oil executives before anybody else gets an audience. Follow the money, it always ends up in the same conference room.”
“These are two entirely separate matters — the Iran strikes are a national security necessity, and the meeting with oil executives is standard energy policy coordination, nothing to do with pricing, nothing about — well, energy security, that is the phrase, energy security, that is all this is.”
The receipts
The latest measures have forced the cancellation of English proficiency and graduate exams, isolating many Iranians most eager to foster ties with the world.
Energy and gas prices are up again after the U.S. resumed strikes on Iran. CBS News' Kelly O'Grady has more on the economic outlook.
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.