US President Trump says in an interview with Stephen A. Smith sthat maybe the Iran war was unpopular because of gas prices and that gas prices seemed to have the biggest impact on the midterms

• Ending the Iran war a little bit more 'civilly' and doing it the long way at the request of some nations, with Qatar, UAE and Bahrain prererring a waiting period.

Remarks tying the Iran conflict's domestic unpopularity to gasoline prices fit the established pattern in which US retail fuel costs carry political weight well beyond their share of household budgets, and presidents facing midterm exposure have historically treated pump prices as a constraint on foreign policy. The reported sequencing, ending the war gradually at the request of Gulf partners with a waiting period, is consistent with past drawdowns in the region, where host-nation mediation and phased timelines have been the norm rather than abrupt cessation. The distinction that matters for crude is between a ceasefire headline and the actual restoration of barrels: the former compresses the geopolitical risk premium in prompt spreads, the latter moves the physical balance, and episodes of this kind have tended to see the premium bleed out in stages as compliance is verified. Gulf producer involvement as intermediaries also puts their own output policy and spare capacity stance in frame, since prior form shows mediating states often shape the pace of any supply normalisation. Worth observing is whether the waiting period hardens into a timeline and how shipping and insurance pricing in the strait region responds before any formal agreement. As political commentary rather than a signed arrangement, the signal is directional only.