The Trump administration may not cut a nuclear deal with Iran and instead might pursue a policy of obliterating Tehran's ability to ever obtain a nuke, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday.
Page F3From§Eachthe early bird edition — 6 September 2026
Energy secretary says he doesn't want an opinion on gas prices, then offers three across three networks.
As it ran on the front
Chris Wright spent Sunday morning insisting he does not have an opinion. Asked directly about gas prices sitting above $4 a gallon, he told the interviewer he did not "want to have an opinion" on where they're headed. That would be a strange thing for the Secretary of Energy to say, except by the time he said it, he had already given three.
On ABC's "This Week," Wright said the war with Iran was necessary, that the country needed to "reset" the Middle East, and that the goal was stopping a nuclear-armed Iran. That is an opinion. On CBS's "Face the Nation," with gas prices still climbing, Wright said the U.S. is "always open" to a nuclear deal with Iran — a step back from the line reported the same morning that a deal "may not" happen and Washington was pursuing a different course. That is a second opinion, and it sits uneasily next to the first. On CNN's "State of the Union," Wright named the actual culprit behind the price at the pump: not Iran, but Ukraine. "The single biggest factor" behind record diesel prices, he said, was "the Ukrainian destruction of Russian refineries." That is a third opinion, and it points at a different war than the one he had just called worth it.…
…(cont) None of this is new. In August, AAA data showed gas above $4 a gallon every day for the first time on record, a milestone the administration's war with Iran helped deliver. Days later, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told G20 finance ministers meeting in Asheville that both the Ukraine war and the Iran war had produced an "energy shock." That accounting was available to Wright on Sunday. He chose, instead, to spend three networks explaining that he had none.
The Energy Secretary of the United States can tell you which war is worth fighting and which war is raising your diesel bill, and he can tell you the administration remains open to ending the very deal it says it might not reach. The one figure he declines to give you is his opinion on what all of it costs you at the pump — a number he can plainly answer, since he just gave three others.
“He says he's got no opinion on your gas bill, then spends three networks handing out opinions on everything else — which war's worth it, which war's not, which deal might still happen. That's not confusion, that's a script with your wallet circled in red. The one number they won't touch is the one you actually pay at the pump.”
“Look, the Secretary isn't going to speculate on gas prices like some pundit — he deals in facts, not opinions. And the fact is the Iran war was necessary, worth every — did I say worth it? I meant the deal's still on the table, we're always open, that's the message. The diesel thing, that's Ukraine, that's not on us — wait, did I just blame two different wars for one gas station? That's not what I meant to say.”
The receipts
As gas prices continue to rise in the U.S., Energy Secretary Chris Wright told "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that "we are always open" to a nuclear agreement, and that President Trump's goal has always been to "not use a military solution unless absolutely necessary."
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday the Iran war is necessary, arguing the U.S. needs to “reset” the Middle East.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Sunday said he did not “want to have an opinion” on the direction of gas prices Americans are paying, which are above $4 per gallon on average at the pump in the U.S. "You said on this show five months ago that high gas prices had peaked, but between not...
Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the Russia-Ukraine war is the “single biggest factor” behind the historic increase in diesel prices. “Diesel has been impacted by a lot of factors, but the single biggest one there has been the Ukrainian destruction of Russian refineries,”
· Trump Hammered Over Iran War That Drove Gas Prices Above $4 Per Gallon Every Day in August for First Time Ever from the morgue, 31 Aug 2026
· Bessent blames Ukraine strikes on Russia for global energy market instability from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.