Trump Accuses Iran of Faking Tanker Attacks to Drive Up Oil Prices Before Midterms

President Donald Trump accused Iran on Thursday of fabricating attacks on oil tankers to drive up energy prices ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm elections, writing on Truth Social that Tehran is “making up fake hits, mines, and everything else.”

“Iran is doing everything they can to drive up the price of Oil prior to the U.S. Midterm Election,” Trump wrote, according to Newsmax, which reported the post. “They are even making up fake hits, mines, and everything else, because more Oil is coming through the Hormuz Strait now than it did even prior to the beginning of the Conflict.”

The post came hours after Iranian state television reported that seven tankers had been damaged overnight in the Strait of Hormuz. Citing the navy of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the report said four tankers were attacked while transferring oil and three others struck naval mines, according to Newsmax and an Associated Press report published Thursday morning. The AP said it could not independently confirm the claims; the Iranian report named no vessels and gave no casualty figures.

A protester death toll Trump did not back up

Trump also used the post to condemn Iran’s treatment of protesters, writing that “75,000 protestors lie dead in less than seven months.” Newsmax noted that Trump did not provide a source for the figure, and that he had cited the same toll at a Kansas rally on Monday but described the period as eight months rather than seven, according to the Jerusalem Post.

He closed the post by repeating his line that Iran must never obtain a nuclear weapon: “IRAN CAN NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON, AND THEY WILL NEVER A NUCLEAR WEAPON!”

A strait where shipping still moves, at a price

On the oil flow question, ship-tracking firm Kpler reported that Middle Eastern oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz and other regional routes averaged more than 24 million barrels per day in the week ending Oct. 18, above the prewar average of 23.3 million barrels per day, Newsmax reported. Those figures include shipments bypassing the strait itself, however, and do not establish that traffic through the waterway has exceeded prewar levels.

Trump has said the United States would not attack Iran before the midterms, citing productive discussions while maintaining a blockade of Iranian ports. The conflict began in February, when the United States and Israel launched joint strikes on Iran, according to the AP.

The accusation lands days before a close election in Israel in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could lose power, and before the Nov. 3 U.S. midterms, in which war-linked high prices have angered voters. “Netanyahu wants to attack Iran, that’s not even a question,” Danny Citrinowicz, a researcher at Israel’s Institute for National Security Studies and a former Iran specialist in Israel’s military and intelligence services, told the AP. He said a clear Netanyahu victory in the Oct. 27 election makes an attack almost guaranteed, and that the region is heading toward “another kinetic escalation.”

The IRGC navy repeated its threat to strike U.S. military bases in the region if Washington keeps helping guide commercial ships through the strait, the AP reported. October has had the most reported attacks on commercial shipping since March, according to the British monitor UKMTO, which said some shippers have grown reluctant to report incidents. The United States is sending a third aircraft carrier and thousands of troops to the region.

Reporting based on coverage by the Associated Press and Newsmax.