Energy Secretary Wright says war with Iran ‘will certainly’ end in next few weeks

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said Sunday that the war with Iran will come to an end in the next few weeks, and possibly sooner, amid concerns about high gas prices.

“I think that this conflict will certainly come to an end in the next few weeks,” Wright told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz. “Could be sooner than that, but the conflict will come to the end in the next few weeks.”

Wright’s comments come as Americans are seeing increasingly high gas prices as a result of the war. One major piece of leverage Iran maintains is its control over the Strait of Hormuz, a critical passageway connecting the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman through which around 20% of the world’s oil supply passes through. Iran has effectively closed the strait, sending crude oil prices skyrocketing and leading to higher gas prices in the U.S.

As of Sunday morning, the price of gas has risen 76 cents per gallon on average since the start of the war, according to GasBuddy, a sharp increase in a short amount of time. Wright said Americans should expect gas prices to come down in the next few weeks, but that there is no guarantee.

“There’s no guarantees in wars at all,” Wright said. “This is short-term pain to get through to a much better place.”

Still, Wright pointed out that gas prices are lower than when prices hit a record high in 2022 under the Biden administration, and he argued that the situation fueling these increases — the U.S. military action against Iran — will lead to a meaningful difference in policy.

“We had $5 gasoline in the middle of the Biden administration,” Wright said. “We hope we don’t get there this time, but at least this increase in gasoline prices is for something that’s going to change the geopolitical situation in the world forever.”

In order to ease gas prices, Wright had previously told CNBC that it was “quite likely” the U.S. Navy could escort oil tankers through the strait by the end of the month, but that it was not ready to do so. President Donald Trump then posted to his social media platform on Saturday that other countries would send warships to help open the Strait of Hormuz, but which countries would be involved and whether they had all agreed to work together in some way is unclear.

When asked by Raddatz which countries would be sending warships, Wright did not confirm specifics but said that many countries in Asia rely on oil from the strait and thus have an interest to help open it.

“All nations of the world depend on products that come from the Straits of Hormuz. China top on that list. Japan, Korea, all the Asian nations is where the energy — energy that comes out of the Straits of Hormuz flows to,” Wright said. “So, of course, it’s quite logical to have a broad coalition of the nations of the world work to reopen the straits.”

Did the Trump administration plan for the strait’s closure?

One accusation Democrats have made is that the Trump administration did not adequately plan for ​Strait of Hormuz’s closure or how it would rattle the oil market and upend supply chains. “How did Donald Trump not see this coming?” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., asked on the Senate floor on Thursday.

Wright rebuked Schumer’s comments on Sunday, accusing the top Democrat of being either “ridiculously naive or … simply being disingenuous, which is more likely.” Wright said that the Trump administration was well aware that the global oil trade would be interrupted because of the war.

“Of course, meticulous planning went into what might happen with the Strait of Hormuz, how to deal with — deal with that. Our chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Caine, is known for many things, but high on that list is an absolute meticulous planner of all of the scenarios that might unfold,” Wright said. 

Later in the interview, he said the administration knew there would be a “temporary interruption” in the waterway.

“We were very aware, very aware that we would have short-term disruption … [that] would cause a little bit of increased prices on Americans,” the secretary said.

Wright described the Trump administration’s plans for the strait as “meticulous.”

Homeland on high alert

Another major concern as the war has progressed is possible threats to the U.S. homeland as a result of the war. An attack on a synagogue in Michigan, the attempted attack at an anti-Muslim protest at New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence and the shootings at Old Dominion University and at a bar in Austin, Texas, are some of the major attacks just since the war began, but it is unclear whether those attacks were directly motivated by the conflict.

Rep. Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, said Sunday that the attacks are not new, but that the U.S. should be prepared for any possible terrorist plots on the homeland.

“So, this isn’t a new phenomenon. Without question, this has been ramped up because of the war in the Middle East that has brought in, gosh, some 14 countries have been attacked in one way or another. This war and this conflict is without question spreading right now.”

Like most Democrats, Smith has been highly critical of the decision to attack Iran. He expressed his doubts Sunday about the ability to make a meaningful change to Iran’s regime so that it is more friendly to the U.S.

“We can’t just fly in, snatch the president and make things change. It is a country of 90 million people, that has a dug-in, well-armed regime that has, you know, proxies in a bunch of different places,” Smith said. “The cost of this war outweighs the benefits.”

Smith and others in his party have drawn criticism in recent weeks for blocking funding for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in a heightened threat environment. Democrats say they will not fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) — a DHS agency — until major reforms are made to its immigration enforcement operation. At present, most of DHS is being denied funding while ICE continues to be funded through Trump’s tax and spending bill passed last summer.

But Smith said Sunday that Democrats are willing to fund the rest of DHS while continuing to block funding for ICE.

“Democrats have said we will fund everything but ICE,” Smith said. “So, whether you’re talking [Transportation Security Administration], [Federal Emergency Management Agency], the Coast Guard, we’re fully prepared to fund all of that. We want reform to ICE.”