Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) on Sunday broke with President Trump regarding the commander in chief's recent statement about the Iran war where he downplayed the conflict. “Any time you are at war or in a military escalation, it is certainly not small potatoes.
Page F2From§Eachthe milkman edition — 7 September 2026
WAR COSTS
Trump calls Iran war 'small potatoes'; the potatoes cost the average American $1,200
As it ran on the front
The ledger opens in August, when AAA recorded thirty-one straight days of gas above four dollars a gallon — the first such stretch on the books. By September 1, the number stopped being a curiosity and started being a bill: economist Mark Zandi, quoted by John Cassidy, put the six-month cost of the Iran war to the average American household at $1,200, a figure tallied outside the Pentagon's own books. Three days later diesel followed gas past its old ceiling, hitting $5.85 a gallon on Friday and edging out the record set in May 2022 when Russia invaded Ukraine — a new high stacked on an old one. That same day, during an Oval Office event, President Trump described the conflict driving both numbers as "small potatoes."
The filing did not sit well with everyone reading it. On Sunday Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.) told CNN that "any time you are at war or in a military escalation, it is certainly not small potatoes," breaking with the commander in chief over the arithmetic. The receipts backed him up: Brent crude was up about a percent as trading resumed, the national gas average sat near $4.15, and OPEC Plus, meeting that same day, chose to hold production steady rather than open the taps that might bring the number back down. Monday's tally made it official — a record Labor Day average of $4.14 a gallon, credited by ABC News to the Iran war and refinery trouble in the same sentence.…
…(cont) The war supplying the number kept moving. Iran said Sunday it plans to declare an "exclusion zone" outside the Strait of Hormuz, tightening its hold on the water its tankers pass through, and threatened "more painful" retaliation after U.S. strikes hit three of those tankers. Nearly 5,000 troops aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, deployed for nearly 300 days, are finally heading home — the fleet drawing down while the price line keeps climbing.
Run the two documents side by side, hon: the man who set the war in motion calls it small potatoes on the record; the household paying for it is out $1,200, filed under his own signature, no itemization attached.
“He's not wrong that it's small — small to him. He's not the one eating the diesel surcharge on the truck that brings the groceries in, or watching the pump click past four bucks every single fill-up since August. Twelve hundred dollars a household is a car payment, a month of groceries, a kid's shoes — that's not potatoes, that's the whole damn dinner.”
“Look, "small potatoes" was clearly about scale — relative to, you know, other wars, historically speaking, this is — okay, that's not really a defense of the gas prices, is it. The president was speaking to the military footprint, not the household budget, those are two separate — did I just say the White House doesn't track what this costs you at the pump? That's not what I meant.”
The receipts
The decision on Sunday by the cartel of oil-producing nations and some of its allies came after the resumption of U.S. and Iranian military strikes in the Persian Gulf.
Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, was up about 1 percent as trading resumed on Sunday, while the national average price of gas was nearly $4.15 a gallon.
Gas prices in the U.S. have hit a record high for Labor Day weekend, averaging $4.14 per gallon
A top Iranian official said Tehran plans to announce an "exclusion zone" outside the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran on Sunday threatened a "more painful" response to U.S. strikes on three Iranian oil tankers.
Nearly 5,000 troops aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln are finally heading home after nearly 300 days of deployment. Meanwhile, fighting amplified in the Gulf region over the weekend as the U.S. and Iran traded attacks.
· 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
· Iran War Has Cost the Average American More Than $1,200 Over Six Months, Economist Estimates from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· Diesel prices hit record high as wars disrupt supply from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
· Trump says military conflict in Iran is 'small potatoes for us' from the morgue, 4 Sep 2026
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.