Iran threatened retaliation against U.S. strikes on Iranian tankers. Meanwhile, concern is growing over energy costs.
Page F2From§Eachthe supper edition — 7 September 2026
Vance credits the war for keeping record gas prices from being even higher
As it ran on the front
The story starts on a Sunday that wasn't supposed to count. On August 30th the U.S. military struck two Iranian rocket launchers on Larak Island — the first American strike on Iran in more than a month — and Iran retaliated the same day, according to The Hill. Two days later, on September 1st, U.S. forces hit Iranian targets near the Strait of Hormuz in strikes President Trump called "large and powerful"; Iran's armed forces said they would retaliate, NBC reported.
On September 2nd, with the war escalating by the day, Trump used the moment to float a real estate idea: rename the Strait of Hormuz "TRUMP STRAIT," because, in his words, it would be "'hotter' than ever before!" The post went up the same week diesel was climbing toward a record no renaming was going to lower.…
…(cont) It got there on September 4th. Diesel hit $5.85 a gallon, four cents past the old record of $5.81 set in May 2022 during the invasion of Ukraine — a new high scored in the middle of a second war. Vice President Vance met the number with a defense, not a denial: prices, he said, could have been "much higher were it not for our efforts." Earlier that week the American Automobile Association had already clocked regular gasoline at $4.08 a gallon for August, ninety cents more than the same month a year prior — the efforts Vance was crediting were already priced in before he took credit for them.
Then Iran launched ballistic missiles at two U.S. Navy vessels; the United States answered by destroying three Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps oil tankers in the Persian Gulf that Saturday, the New York Post reported. Iran threatened retaliation for the tanker strikes and, in the same breath, announced a new "exclusion zone" outside the Strait of Hormuz — tightening its hold on the same chokepoint that had already pushed diesel to a record days before a shot was fired near it.
Eight days separate the first strike at Larak Island from the record gas price posted at the pump for Labor Day. That count is not in dispute.
“They sink three tankers on a Saturday and by Monday morning it's your problem at the pump — that's not a coincidence, that's a supply chain with your name at the bottom of the invoice. Vance stands up and calls a record price restraint, like the man who lit the match bragging he only used one. You're paying for a war you didn't vote on, ninety cents a gallon at a time, and the receipt showed up on a holiday weekend right on schedule.”
“Look, the Vice President said it himself — prices could have been much higher without our efforts, that's not spin, that's arithmetic. Sure, diesel hit an all-time record the same week, but a record just means it went up from the last record, which — actually, hold on, that's not the win I meant it to be. The strikes secured the strait, that's the point, and whether the strait needed securing because of strikes on the strait is a separate conversation.”
The receipts
Concerns are ramping up over energy costs as the war with Iran drags on and U.S. gas prices hit record highs for Labor Day. CBS News contributor Javier David has more.
Iran is threatening retaliation after U.S. airstrikes sank three ships in the Gulf. CBS News homeland security correspondent Nicole Sganga reports.
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.
Iran on Sunday threatened a "more painful" response to U.S. strikes on three Iranian oil tankers.
The Strait of Hormuz remains the primary flashpoint in the conflict.
The United States military destroyed three Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps crude oil tankers in the Persian Gulf Saturday – after Iran launched ballistic missiles at two US Navy vessels. Footage shows large tankers blown up in flames, as a thick plume of black smoke rise off the sea. A US military aircraft crew can be...
· Ship tracking websites, including Kpler, MarineTraffic, and TankerTrackers, show that three Iranian oil tankers, including two from the National Iranian Tanker Company, have escaped the blockade that from the morgue, 17 Jun 2026
· Iranian state media reports that the United States Navy attempted to capture an Iranian oil tanker. The oil tanker was boarded, commandeered and then returned by Iranian NEDSA marines in a helicopter from the morgue, 3 Nov 2021
· US strikes Iranian rocket launchers in first attack since late July from the morgue, 30 Aug 2026
· An Iranian Navy commander claims on state television that the Iranian Navy forced a U.S. submarine to surface as it transited the Strait of Hormuz and that the submarine violated Iranian territorial w from the morgue, 20 Apr 2023
· 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
· Diesel prices hit record high as wars disrupt supply 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.