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.
Page F2From§Eachthe sunrise edition — 7 September 2026
THE INVOICE
Vance downplays Iran war's role in gas prices days before they hit a new record high.
As it ran on the front
I want to walk you through the numbers, because once you see them in context you'll understand there is no connection whatsoever between the war in Iran and the price of gas — none, zero, and if my voice cracks a little it's because I've said this so many times this week it's started to sound like a lie even to me. Which it isn't. Probably.
Start back in August, when gas closed every day of the month above four dollars a gallon for the first time in American history — a coincidence, timing-wise, with a war that had been running more than six months by then, but coincidences happen, that's what makes them coincidences.…
…(cont) On September 1st we struck Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz — "large and powerful," the President called it — and Iran's armed forces said they'd retaliate. That has nothing to do with anything either. The next day the President floated renaming the strait after himself, "hotter than ever before," his words, right as diesel was setting up to break its own record. Two headlines, zero relation. I stand by that. I have to.
By September 4th diesel hit $5.85 a gallon, an all-time high, and the Vice President went on television to say prices could have been "much higher were it not for our efforts" — which, hold on, if our efforts are why it's not higher, then our efforts are a variable in the price, which would mean — no. No. Scratch that. There is no variable. There is no equation. There is a war and there is a gas station and they are strangers who happen to check into the same motel every week.
Which brings us to this weekend, when Iran announced an "exclusion zone" around the Strait of Hormuz and promised a "more painful" response to our strikes on its tankers, and gas hit a new record for Labor Day — $4.14 a gallon — the same weekend, the same strait, the same war I keep telling you isn't — okay. Okay. It's the war. It has always been the war.
But I want to be clear that saying so is not an admission. It's a clarification. And the clarification is: buy a hybrid, and please stop asking me questions I don't have talking points for.
“They keep saying the war's got nothing to do with your gas bill the same week the wire runs "record price, thanks to Iran war" right underneath it. It's not a coincidence, it's the same invoice split into two press releases so nobody has to say "war" and "wallet" in the same sentence. You're paying for a war they won't even call a war, every time you fill up.”
“Look, gas prices are a global commodity issue — refinery maintenance, seasonal blending, the war is a completely separate line item, full stop. I mean, the Vice President specifically said prices could've been higher without our efforts, so if anything we're keeping costs down — wait, that means our efforts are already priced into it, so it's still the — did I say that? That doesn't sound like me. Scratch it: global commodities, always has been.”
The receipts
Gas prices in the U.S. have hit a record high for Labor Day weekend, averaging $4.14 per gallon
Iran on Sunday threatened a "more painful" response to U.S. strikes on three Iranian oil tankers.
The average price for a gallon of diesel fuel in the United States hit an all-time high average price of $5.85 on Friday as the Trump administration's war on Iran and its resulting disruptions to the global energy market showed no signs of ending. "Trump did it! Diesel hits a new record high!" economist Dean Baker wrote sardonically on…
A top Iranian official says Tehran will impose an "exclusion zone" outside the Strait of Hormuz as it seeks to tighten its chokehold on tanker traffic.
The Strait of Hormuz remains the primary flashpoint in the conflict.
· Trump Threatens to Rename Strait of Hormuz for Himself as War Pushes Diesel Prices Toward Record High from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· Trump floats renaming Strait of Hormuz after himself from the morgue, 2 Sep 2026
· U.S. strikes targets in Iran near Strait of Hormuz as Iran says it is retaliating from the morgue, 1 Sep 2026
· 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
This page is a back-issue: the story as it ran, receipts as they were. The current edition is at the front.