Gas and diesel prices are among the most pressing concerns facing Americans today, and for good reason. When the dollar amount rolls over on the pump, it hits truck drivers, tradesmen, farmers, and families trying to get by. This is more than an inconvenience. It is a direct hit to their livelihoods.
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But should the price of filling our tanks decide the future of the United States?
The pain is real. No serious person should dismiss it. Still, there is a difference between suffering for something worthwhile and suffering in vain.
For years, energy debates have pitted competing visions against each other. Conservatives argued that affordable energy, domestic production, and reliable infrastructure are essential. Progressives pushed policies to accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels at the expense of affordability, reliability, and common sense.
Donald Trump’s first term showed that Americans can experience periods of comparatively low fuel prices. Presidents do not control prices at the pump by themselves—global demand, refining capacity, and international conflict all matter—but government decisions about domestic energy production still matter. Americans have every right to demand policies that protect their ability to work and provide for their families.
Now we are in conflict with Iran, and energy prices have become part of the cost. Whether someone supported entering this conflict is a legitimate debate. Whether the United States should permit Iran to hold global commerce hostage through threats to shipping is another question entirely.
I do not want an endless war. I also do not want my children to deal with this conflict because we neglected to resolve it. Above all, I want to teach them that America does not abandon every difficult situation the moment it becomes expensive or inconvenient. That is the mentality that got us into this mess.
So, Mr. President, if this is the strategy, see it through. I am willing to swallow the medicine if it means my children inherit a country less vulnerable to the coercion and terrorism Iran has steeped itself in.
Only a weak, feckless country lets every painful setback convince it to give up.
I do not believe regime change is the answer. We have seen what happens when America tries to remake a country by force. But there is a difference between trying to remake a nation and making sure its government can no longer threaten ours.
We have spent too many years allowing hostile governments to test our resolve, negotiate their way out of consequences, and return to the same behavior once the pressure lets up. It’s time to stop repeating that cycle with Iran.
Bring the full weight of American power against its ability to threaten our forces, our allies, and the free movement of goods through the Strait of Hormuz. Negotiations should begin only once Iran fully appreciates the reality of the situation.
I am talking about the Iranian government, not the Iranian people. If the people of Iran want to change the direction of their country, that is their decision. Our responsibility is to protect American interests and ensure the terrorist regime cannot continue threatening us with impunity. Our first responsibility is to the American people, end of discussion.
The point is not a forever war. It is to make sure that when we finally step back, we have accomplished something worth the cost. If we are going to ask American families to swallow higher fuel prices, then we had better have more to show for it than another ineffectual accord. We need a result that lasts.
The other half of this strategy is making sure we never find ourselves in this position again.
One of the greatest blunders in American history was allowing our industries and manufacturing capacity to be sent overseas, including to hostile countries. We traded long-term security for cheaper goods and short-term profits. Now we are dependent on foreign nations for products, materials, and supply chains essential to our economy and national defense.
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It was shortsighted, reckless, and, in some cases, difficult to distinguish from a betrayal of the national interest. That is one reason Americans elected Donald Trump twice.
Trump is trying to bring that capacity back. Manufacturing, energy infrastructure, refining, critical minerals, machine tools, and the supply chains that keep our country running cannot remain afterthoughts. He understood, like most common-sense Americans, that we need to make things in America again, produce more of our own energy, and ensure that the industries our country depends on cannot be held hostage by a foreign power.
This crisis should serve as a wake-up call. We should not have to look at the price of diesel and realize that a hostile government can reach into the pockets of American families. We should not be so dependent on foreign supply chains that a conflict overseas threatens our ability to build, produce, and defend ourselves.
Oil is a global market. Domestic production alone will not guarantee cheap gasoline when Iran is shooting at tankers in the Strait of Hormuz. Reindustrialization will take years, not weeks. But there is a difference between being affected by a crisis and being vulnerable to coercion due to our failure to prepare.
A country that can produce its own energy, build its own machines, and keep its supply chains from being held hostage has options. A country that cannot is just negotiating the terms of its own vulnerability.
The goal is independence where it matters, resilience where full independence is unrealistic, and strength in the industries that actually keep the country running. That means we stop treating the people who make things as relics.
Farmers, machinists, welders, truck drivers, engineers, and factory workers are not “economic inputs.” They are the people who turn resources into something useful. An economy that celebrates financial speculation while it forgets how to build, repair, transport, and produce has forgotten what sustains it.
A country does not stay a great industrial power by permanently outsourcing the work that made it one. This is not nostalgia. It is national security.
A country, though, is not just an economy or GDP; it is its people. I think about the families at the gas pump because I am one of them. Truck drivers are watching margins disappear. Farmers are running the numbers on another season. Parents look at the paycheck and wonder how much more it can absorb.
That frustration is real. It is what happens when people who work for a living keep getting hit by decisions they did not make.
Are we going to let that frustration turn into another excuse to retreat the moment something gets hard, or a demand for a country that is stronger, more productive, and less vulnerable to governments that have figured out how to use our good graces against us?
Republicans need to show they can finish the job and rebuild that capacity. That is the case they must make before November 3.
I do not want my children spending their lives paying for the same mistakes we refuse to fix.
America must be strong enough to confront its enemies abroad and strong enough to stand on its own at home. Otherwise, we will keep writing the same checks at the expense of our children and calling it the price of doing business.
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