Trump's Iran Boondoggle Has Already Cost U.S. Drivers An Extra $10,000,000,000 At The Pump

In the last month, EV owners have probably felt pretty smug as they watched gas prices climb, but those still stuck filling up at the pump have been feeling the pressure. At the time of writing, the national average is $4.09 a gallon, and three states are paying over $5 a gallon. With prices now more than a dollar a gallon higher than they were before Trump started his stupid war with Iran, the cost of pricier gas is adding up fast. According to Gas Buddy's Patrick De Haan, Trump's Iran boondoggle has already cost U.S. drivers an extra $10 billion. 

Yes, you read that correctly. Ten billion with a "B," not an "M." And those aren't some ephemeral tax spending dollars but cold, hard cash out of real people's pockets. If Trump hadn't decided to senselessly slaughter the Iranian people, we, the people, would have a collective $10 billion more that we could spend on literally anything else. Groceries. A new dishwasher. Shoes that fit your kid's growing feet. Tickets to see the The Creekers and Muscadine Bloodline open for Turnpike Troubadours at the Synovus Bank Amphitheater at Chastain Park on October 9. You know. The important stuff. But no, blowing up that girls' school was so much more important than me getting to see Evan Felker on stage for the first time since he sobered up.

Per Gas Buddy's numbers, the gas U.S. drivers buy just today will cost an extra $430 million, up significantly from March 19, when De Haan estimated Americans were spending a mere $350 million extra on gas every single day. That's just on gasoline, too, not diesel. And because of the way math works, the more expensive gas gets, the higher the daily cost will climb. Billions and billions of dollars down the drain until this dumb war ends and probably for long after. 

If this was just a temporary blip caused by forces outside our control, like we saw back in 2022, that would be one thing. Sometimes stuff happens. It would suck, but at least it wouldn't be our fault. This, though? This is entirely our fault. We did this to ourselves. And now we have to deal with the consequences. The very, very expensive consequences. Plains states with cheap gas are looking at major price jumps today between $0.15 and $0.40 a gallon. Diesel currently costs $5.52 a gallon, and in five states, it's already at least $2.00 more expensive than it was pre-war. 

Oh, and while we probably won't see $5 gasoline for a bit, Gas Buddy's model predicts diesel prices will set a new all-time record within the next three-to-five days. So that should be fun. Sure, the U.S. depends on diesel trucks to transport our goods to their final destinations, and pricier diesel means we'll end up paying more for food, clothes, and even services such as landscaping, but at least those sacrifices are in support of a war that will most likely leave an even more hardline anti-U.S. regime in power, with its military capabilities still largely intact, and in a position to enrich itself charging tolls to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. Oh wait.

Of course, we aren't just paying higher prices at the pump and in the store. We also have to pay for the war itself, which reportedly cost us $11.3 billion in the first six days alone. Meanwhile, the Pentagon has requested $200 billion to pay for the war, there's no evidence we're any closer to opening the strait, and Iran just reportedly downed a U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle that cost more than $30 million (or 982 Mazda MX-5 Miata Sports) when it was new. Still, as expensive as that plane was, it pales in comparison to the $300 million E-3 Sentry AWACS plane that we recently lost. And that's not even counting the lives that have already been lost. Soldiers, civilians, children — no one needed to die, and their blood? It's on Trump's hands.