In an Oval Office interview, President Donald Trump stated that one of his guiding principles during the Iran conflict was avoiding the kind of economic collapse he associates with former President Herbert Hoover.
“I’ve always said, I don’t want to be a president with a depression on his resume,” Trump remarked. “I don’t want to be Herbert Hoover. Of almost all presidents, some have been bad, some have been good, very few have been great. But I never want to be Herbert Hoover because Herbert Hoover was the president that probably took us into the Great Depression, the greatest depression, led the whole world there.”
Trump explained that if the Strait of Hormuz had remained closed during his presidency, global oil prices could have surged to $300 to $350 a barrel, triggering a worldwide economic depression. He credited U.S. naval forces for escorting tankers through the southern part of the strait at night without lights for weeks, which he said helped keep prices below $115.
“One of the reasons it only went up to like $115,” Trump noted, “if you remember, and I’ve seen guests on your show where they go oil will be $300 a barrel, and there’ll be a depression because at $300 there’s a depression. It’s automatic.”
During his remarks, Trump described the operation: “We had one night where we took 22 ships out. That’s a lot of oil. Those are big ships. Some of them are really big ships.” He added that U.S. forces escorted tankers through the strait with no lights for a month and a half, keeping prices from spiking.
Trump emphasized: “I said, well, we’ve got to do something. We did something nobody knew.”
He also referenced President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, stating, “FDR didn’t get us out of it. There’s a picture right there, FDR.”
The interview concluded with Trump reiterating his commitment to avoiding economic depression: “I don’t want to be in a depression. I don’t want to be a president that oversees the great worldwide depression. That was Herbert Hoover. And it was a terrible thing.”
