Treasury Promises The Most Crushing Economic Campaign In History; It Arrives First At The American Pump

WASHINGTON—The administration announced this week that it would begin, in the president’s words, “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country,” a campaign so far most visible in the price Americans are paying for gas.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described an effort aimed at every source of Iranian revenue, warning that any nation whose banks, businesses, or airports offer Iran “a lifeline” would face consequences of its own. The president previewed the plan on Truth Social in capital letters, which is how the most crushing economic operations are now declared.

Iran, for its part, threatened to halt oil through the Strait of Hormuz, the channel that carries roughly a fifth of the world’s oil. This is one of the mechanisms by which a crushing economic operation aimed abroad arrives, promptly, at home. The national average for a gallon of gasoline reached $4.11, the highest for an August on record, a figure the administration did not include in its account of the operation’s early success.

The theory is that enough economic pain will force Iran to fold. The complication is that the same pain is being distributed, at the pump, to the drivers in whose name it is being inflicted. Officials expressed confidence that the pressure would work, and declined to say on whom.

The operation is proceeding on schedule. It is crushing steadily, in both directions at once.