Rubio: We Have a Plan to Counter Oil Price Spike

Washington says it has a playbook ready as oil prices jump amid the US-Iran conflict, Politico reports. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday the Trump administration will start rolling out a plan Tuesday aimed at easing the spike in crude prices that followed US strikes on Iran and retaliatory attacks on energy infrastructure in the region. US oil futures climbed more than 6% after a senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guard reportedly claimed Tehran had shut the Strait of Hormuz and would target ships trying to pass. The narrow waterway handles more than a fifth of the world's seaborne oil and gas, and attacks on vessels there have already slowed global crude flows, with some tankers diverting to longer routes.

Rubio, speaking before an Iran war briefing with lawmakers, said Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will oversee the yet-unrevealed program. Reuters reports President Trump is scheduled to meet with Wright and Bessent at 2pm Tuesday. "Starting tomorrow you will see us rolling out those phases to try to mitigate against that," Rubio said Monday of rising oil prices, adding, "We knew that going in would be a factor." On the military front, Rubio used notably blunt language: "We're going to destroy their Navy."