Cue another milestone in your favorite president’s forever war-you’re-not-allowed-to-call-a-war in Iran! The average price of diesel across the country is now $6 a gallon, with no end to the trend in sight.
This is the third time this week diesel has set a record. At least five gas stations in California surpassed $9.999 a gallon for diesel on Thursday, GasBuddy analyst Patrick de Haan tweeted. That’s the maximum price their signs can display. Crude oil futures are now in the $102.48 a barrel to $107.63 a barrel range, according to Reuters.
Nearly everything gets more expensive when diesel does—food, consumer goods, cars, electronics, you name it. According to a Brown University tracker, increased diesel prices alone have cost U.S. households a cumulative $46.61 billion, or around $355. That’s not much less than gasoline, which is $56.42 billion.
“In a span of five months, we’ve seen diesel prices more than double. It has rocked our cash flows,” Oasis Energy’s Alex Ryan told Reuters. “There’s gotta be a tipping point, I just don’t know when or where it’s going to be.”
The ongoing war with Iran and U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz that Donald Trump kicked off in late February 2026 has put a stranglehold on oil prices. Bob McNally, president of Rapidan Energy Group, recently offered the plausible theory that it’s taken so long for oil prices to rise in part because markets adopted an “optimism bias” that Trump would reach a deal sooner rather than later.
If so, this week’s developments show little reason for continued optimism. Trump promised the war would end immediately following a Republican victory in the November midterm elections, thus acknowledging the Strait won’t be opening up for at least two more months. According to The Atlantic, actual U.S. military posture in the region is far more suggestive of a “sustained presence” with the “option of escalation.”
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reported this week that Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other top advisors have repeatedly warned Trump behind the scenes that the war may continue through his last day in office. As of right now, that’s scheduled for January 20, 2029.
By the way, Iran has reportedly resumed construction of ballistic missiles.
