Denmark’s energy minister urged citizens of the Scandinavian country to cut back on energy use and ditch cars as the price of oil continues to skyrocket amid the Middle East conflict.

Lars Aagaard, Denmark’s minister for climate, energy, and utilities, said Wednesday that the ongoing war between the U.S. and Iran has driven the country to lean on its oil reserves in light of “towering oil prices” with no end to the conflict in sight.

“What the Danes should please, please, please do is that if there is any energy consumption that you can do without, if it is not strictly necessary to drive the car, then don’t do it,” he said in an interview with local broadcaster DR, translated by Google.

If Denmark saves energy in the near future, there will be two positive effects that can be felt both by citizens and the government, he said.

“Firstly, it can be felt in the private wallet, and secondly, it can help stretch our reserves so that they last longer,” Aagaard said.

Similar warnings have been issued across countries worldwide. In the U.K., motoring groups such as the AA have called on drivers to cut “non-essential journeys,” and change their driving style to conserve fuel.

Vietnam’s Ministry for Industry and Trade encouraged businesses to adopt remote working arrangements and reduce travel and transport demand to ensure national energy security.

Meanwhile, the Philippine government implemented a temporary four-day workweek in certain executive branches to conserve energy and reduce fuel use.

Concerns over oil prices have remained elevated this week, as oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz ground to a halt due to the threat of Iranian attacks on vessels. A potential inflation spike could follow if the passage remains closed, and threatens to raise the cost of living, from petrol to groceries.

Oil prices jumped over 8% to more than $100 per barrel earlier on Thursday. The West Texas Intermediate was last up 4.6% to $91 per barrel, while global benchmark Brent was trading nearly 5% higher at $96.

To assuage these fears, the International Energy Agency on Wednesday agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil to address the supply disruption triggered by the Iran war.

The IEA, which represents 32 member countries across Europe, North America, and northeast Asia, said the reserves would be released over a specific time frame, depending on the needs of its member countries.

Meanwhile, the U.S announced that it would release 172 million barrels from its Strategic Petroleum Reserve, with shipments expected to begin next week and take roughly 120 days to complete.

Three more foreign ships were struck in the Persian Gulf overnight, authorities said, as attacks intensify on vessels sailing through or near the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

The latest incidents come after three separate vessels sustained damage in Gulf waters on Wednesday and as Iran warns oil prices could climb to $200 a barrel.

A container ship was struck by an unknown projectile about 35 nautical miles north of Jebel Ali, a major port city near Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) center said on Thursday. The incident caused a small fire onboard, and all crew were reported to be safe.

Earlier, two foreign oil tankers were left ablaze in Iraqi waters after having been struck near the port Umm Qasr, near the city of Basra.

At least one person was killed in the attack, according to multiple media reports, citing Iraqi port officials, and 38 crew members were rescued from the ships. Iraq’s General Company for Ports was not immediately available to comment when contacted by CNBC.

Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has virtually ground to a halt since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Iran has retaliated by targeting ships trying to pass through the strait, with several incidents reported in recent days.

The narrow waterway is a key maritime corridor that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Roughly 20% of global oil and gas typically passes through it.

Attacks on commercial ships in the Gulf have ratcheted up fears of a prolonged economic shock.

“Get ready for oil to be $200 a barrel, because the oil price depends on regional security, which you have destabilised,” Ebrahim Zolfaqari, spokesperson for Iran’s military command, said Wednesday, according to Reuters.

Crude prices were sharply higher on Thursday morning, as traders closely monitored supply risks and appeared to shrug off the International Energy Agency’s push to release a record 400 million barrels of oil.

International benchmark Brent crude futures with May delivery traded 5.7% higher at $97.16 per barrel, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures with April delivery rose 5.3% at $91.88.

The IEA on Wednesday did not set out a timeline for when the stocks would hit the market. It said that the reserves would be released over a time frame that is appropriate to the circumstances of each of its 32 member countries.

President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he’s not worried about Iran executing a terror attack within the United States in retaliation for the ongoing war by the U.S. and Israel.

“No, I don’t,” Trump told a reporter outside the White House when asked if he feared such a domestic attack.

Trump also touted progress in the war against Iran, which is in its 11th day, before departing for a trip to Kentucky and Ohio.

“Right now, they’ve lost their Navy, their Air Force. They have no anti-aircraft apparatus at all,” the president said. “Their leaders are gone, and we could do a lot worse.”

Trump said the U.S. military is “leaving certain things” in Iran, which could be destroyed by the afternoon, if need be, and “they literally would never be able to build that country back.”

He said the U.S. military had destroyed about 16 of Iran’s mine-layers.

Asked if Iran had mined the Strait of Hormuz, which is the world’s most sensitive choke point for oil shipments, Trump said, “We don’t think so.”

In a report Tuesday that cited two people familiar with U.S. intelligence reporting, CNN said that Iran began laying mines in the strait, albeit just a few dozen in recent days.

Trump, referring to the CEOs of major oil companies, said, “I think they should” send tankers through the narrow strait, which has remained effectively closed because of the war.

A spokesman for Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned Monday that tankers passing through the strait “must be very careful.”

The Strait of Hormuz, which lies off the southern coast of Iran, connects the Persian Gulf to the Arabian Sea.

The insurance giant Chubb said Wednesday that it will serve as lead underwriter for a U.S.-government-led program to provide insurance to ships passing through the strait.

Trump on Wednesday brushed off a question about a report by The New York Times, which said that “newly released video adds to the evidence that an American missile likely hit an Iranian elementary school where 175 people, many of them children, were reported killed.”

Trump said, “I don’t know about that” finding, which backs up other analyses that the U.S. military was responsible for that Feb. 28 attack on the Shajarah Tayyebeh elementary school.

The president again criticized the leadership of Spain for not helping the U.S. war effort.

“We may cut off trade with Spain,” said Trump, who has a penchant for using tariffs and other retaliatory trade practices as leverage against other countries.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has incurred Trump’s wrath for barring the U.S. military from using two bases in Andalusia to launch strikes on Iran.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in an X post on Wednesday, wrote that in conversations with “the presidents of the governments of Russia and Pakistan, while announcing the Islamic Republic’s commitment to peace and tranquility in the region, I emphasized that the only way to end the war that began with the warmongering of the Zionist regime and America is the acceptance of Iran’s indisputable rights, payment of reparations, and a firm international obligation to prevent their aggression from recurring.”

The International Energy Agency on Wednesday agreed to release 400 million barrels of oil to address the supply disruption triggered by the Iran war, the largest such action in the organization’s history.

The IEA did not set out a timeline for when the stocks would hit the market. It said that the reserves would be released over a timeframe that is appropriate to the circumstances of each of its 32 member countries.

“The oil market challenges we are facing are unprecedented in scale, therefore I am very glad that IEA Member countries have responded with an emergency collective action of unprecedented size,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement.

“Oil markets are global so the response to major disruptions needs to be global too,” Birol said. “Energy security is the founding mandate of the IEA, and I am pleased that IEA Members are showing strong solidarity in taking decisive action together.”

Energy analysts warned ahead of the release that even the IEA’s maximum drawdown capability would likely not be able to offset the nearly 20 million barrels per day that typically transits through the Strait of Hormuz.

The waterway is a narrow maritime corridor off Iran’s coast that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Roughly 20% of global oil and gas usually passes through it.

Oil prices have been extremely volatile since the outbreak of the Iran war on Feb. 28, with global benchmark Brent crude rallying to nearly $120 a barrel at the start of the week, before falling back below $90.

Earlier in the day, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi said the country intended to release oil stockpiles from its national reserves as early as next week, citing an “exceptionally high level of dependence” on the Middle East.

“Without waiting for an official decision on the release of international stockpiles in cooperation with the International Energy Agency (IEA), Japan has decided to take the lead in releasing its stockpiles as early as the 16th of this month in order to ease supply and demand in the international energy market,” Takaichi told reporters, according to public broadcaster NHK.

IEA members currently hold more than 1.2 billion barrels of public emergency oil stocks, with a further 600 million barrels of industry stocks held under government obligation.

The global energy watchdog had previously released an estimated 182 million barrels of oil to support the energy market following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

A cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz has been struck by an unknown projectile, causing a fire onboard, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations said in an update on Wednesday morning.

The strike forced the crew of the ship, which has not been identified, to evacuate, the UKMTO said. It urged vessels to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity while authorities continue to investigate.

The incident took place 11 nautical miles north of Oman in the Strait of Hormuz. The UKMTO said there is no report of any environmental impact.

Shipping traffic through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz has ground to a near standstill since the U.S. and Israel launched airstrikes on Iran on Feb. 28. Iran has retaliated by targeting ships trying to pass through the strait, with multiple incidents reported in recent days.

The waterway is a narrow maritime corridor that connects the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. Roughly 20% of global oil and gas typically passes through it.

U.S. forces sank several Iranian ships on Tuesday, including 16 minelayers, near the Strait of Hormuz, according to U.S. Central Command. The update followed an earlier announcement from U.S. President Donald Trump that said if Iran had put any mines in the waterway, “we want them removed, IMMEDIATELY!”

This is breaking news. Please refresh for updates.

Senate Democrats on Tuesday rebutted President Donald Trump’s claims that the war in Iran may soon be over, warning that the U.S. risks getting dragged into another prolonged conflict in the Middle East.

The concerns from Democrats who attended a bipartisan classified briefing with military brass on Tuesday stand in stark contrast with the president, who on Monday suggested the U.S. may be nearing the completion of its operation. Trump’s statements sent slumping markets soaring and cratered oil prices that had skyrocketed in recent days.

The senators were briefed as the Trump administration continues to whipsaw between explanations, goals and timelines for the war that has seen eight U.S. service members killed in action and left the longtime leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, dead.

“What I heard is not just concerning, it is disturbing,” Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, whose members were briefed. “I’m not sure what the endgame is or what their plans are. … And if he does want to put us in a forever war, which it seems like he does, he needs to come out and let us be able to have that discussion.

“Do you think because he thinks he waves some magic wand that everything just stops? … It’s not going to stop just because he wishes it to be so,” Rosen said.

The pessimism from Democrats on an eventual U.S. end for the war it started with Israel against Iran comes as Congress awaits a potential supplemental funding request to finance the offensive. The effort has burned through billions of dollars of U.S. munitions, which will have to be refilled. Some Democrats said they would resist any request for further funding. Democrats have also balked at Trump failing to seek congressional authorization to begin the war.

“At this point, I am a hard no on a supplemental,” said Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee. “No more money. The one thing Congress has the power to do is to stop actions like this through the power of the purse.”

“This is not a war supported by this country, and this is not a war that makes us safer,” Warren said.

Lawmakers exiting the meeting said the size of the potential supplemental package was not given. Republicans, who hold a 53-47 vote majority in the Senate, appeared willing to support more funding for the war when they left the briefing.

“Not in total dollar amounts that I’ve heard,” said Sen. Jim Banks, R-Ind. “Obviously, there’s a cost to it, but the trade-off is exponentially more, and this has been a very effective operation so far.”

“We need to do whatever it takes to accomplish the mission and do it as fast as we can,” Banks said.

The Washington Post on Monday reported that the military burned through $5.6 billion in munitions in the first two days of the war that began Feb. 28. Washington-based bipartisan think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimates that the war is costing roughly $891 million per day.

Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., a former Navy Seal, suggested the cost is worth it.

“Iran’s been at war with us for 47 years; we’re trying to end this war,” Sheehy said, referencing the years since the Iranian regime came to power. “We’ve had two presidential administrations give billions of dollars to Iran, that’s what really cost [money].”

Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have painted a different picture of the timeline of the war than Democrats say they fear. Hegseth, at a press briefing earlier Tuesday pledged the U.S. will not enter another prolonged conflict in the Middle East, and Trump on Monday said the war would end “very soon.”

War costs are expected to only grow as the war drags on, and Democrats are warning there is no end in sight. The war dragging on could also see markets whip back and oil costs continue to soar, especially as the Strait of Hormuz, which carries roughly 20% of the world’s oil remains largely impassible.

Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said there was “no discussion” about the safety of passing through the Strait during the briefing while he was in attendance.

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a retired Navy captain, also said the U.S. doesn’t appear to be nearing the end of the war after leaving the meeting.

“Clearly, they do not have a strategic goal,” he said. “They didn’t have a plan, they have no timeline. Because of that, they have no exit strategy.”

Correction: This story has been revised to reflect that Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., is a former Navy SEAL. A previous version misidentified the branch of the military in which he served.

Analysts warned on Monday that there was no precedent for the surging price of oil, as the Middle East crisis deepens fears of prolonged production shut-ins and disruption to shipments through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

Oil prices were on track for their biggest-ever jump in a single day on Monday, before significantly paring gains, following a fresh wave of U.S. and Israeli strikes across Iran over the weekend. Oil depots were among the targets.

International benchmark Brent crude futures with May delivery traded 12.8% higher at $104.53 per barrel on Monday morning, while U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures with April delivery were last seen nearly 12% higher at $101.76.

Brent futures had climbed as high as $119.5 per barrel earlier in the trading day, while WTI hit a session high of $119.48.

Neil Atkinson, former head of oil at the International Energy Agency, said the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz is something energy markets had never seen before. Unless something changes very soon “we are in a potentially game-changing and unprecedented energy crisis,” he told CNBC on Monday.

Countries across the oil-rich Middle East region have started to scale back crude output. Iraq and Kuwait have already begun to shut-in production, with analysts warning that the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia may also be vulnerable if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for a sustained period.

“Though there are oil stocks around the world, the point is that if this closure of the Strait persists, those oil stocks if they are deployed will be depleted and we are going to be in a situation where, with the oil production actually shut in, in Iraq and possibly in Kuwait and maybe even in time in Saudi Arabia, that we are going to be in a crisis the likes of which we have never seen before,” Atkinson told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe.”

Asked what this could mean for oil prices, Atkinson replied: “Sorry, we are getting into the realms of educated guesswork here. I mean, there is no precedent for this. The sky is the limit.”

Typically, about 20% of the world’s oil and gas passes through the Strait of Hormuz, but shipping traffic has all but halted through this key maritime corridor since the war started.

Oil prices came off their session highs on Monday shortly after the Financial Times reported that finance ministers from G7 economies would hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss a possible joint release of petroleum from reserves coordinated by the IEA.

The U.K.’s Treasury and French government confirmed to CNBC that the call would take place on Monday.

Tyler Goodspeed, chief economist at ExxonMobil, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Europe” on Monday that it had been “consensus last week, and to a certain extent still today,” that everyone but Russia had “an interest in normal traffic resuming through the Strait of Hormuz.”

He added the consensus had been that there was “abundant oil on the water and some strategic reserves to cover any short-term gap.” Goodspeed said he was skeptical of this view as the conflict enters its second week.

“When I think of the probability distribution of possible outcomes here, it seems to me there are many more scenarios, and more probable scenarios, in which the strait remains effectively closed harder for longer than there are scenarios in which normal traffic resumes,” Goodspeed said.

Analysts at Societe Generale, meanwhile, warned that prolonged production shut-ins from Middle East countries “materially increase” the risk of restart complications.

“The UAE is likely the next producer at risk of shutting in output, potentially within the next five to seven days,” the analysts said in a research note published Monday.

“Qatar is also vulnerable, though its oil volumes are modest relative to its LNG exposure. Saudi Arabia faces less immediate risk but shut ins would become plausible if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for a further two to three weeks,” they added.

— CNBC’s Holly Ellyatt contributed to this report.

Congressional Democrats are demanding that the Trump administration immediately reverse a sanctions waiver allowing Indian refiners to purchase Russian oil as the Iran war wreaks havoc on global energy markets.

“Your recent decision to provide a 30-day waiver is dangerous, self-defeating, and indefensible,” Rep. Sam Liccardo, D-Calif., and Sen. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., wrote in a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, which was shared exclusively with CNBC. “This waiver constitutes an inexplicable act of material benefit to the enemy.”

The Treasury Department last week issued a temporary 30-day sanctions carveout to allow India to buy Russian oil, an effort to ease skyrocketing oil prices caused by the war and the traffic standstill at the Strait of Hormuz.

The oil surge comes less than eight months before the November midterm elections that could flip the House of Representatives and the Senate to Democratic control, and polls show voters are souring on President Donald Trump’s handling of the economy.

After the sanctions waiver was issued, however, it was reported that Russia is assisting Iran in targeting U.S. ships, aircraft, and bases in the region. Gallego and Liccardo warned in the letter against the temporary lifting of the sanctions, which rewards Russia with a windfall as it helps to target U.S. troops in the Middle East.

“Rather than performing the necessary contingency planning that would keep India and other allies supplied with alternative sources, the Administration’s hapless approach has allowed Russia and other adversaries to profit from oil reserves previously constrained by sanctions, supporting Russian efforts to harm U.S. troops and thwart U.S. intelligence,” Gallego and Liccardo wrote in their letter. “By providing this waiver, you have signaled that the United States will reward attacks on our troops, not deter them.”

About 20% of the world’s oil and gas moves through the Strait of Hormuz, which has been largely impassible since the beginning of the U.S. and Israeli assault on Tehran.

Oil prices have surged in the days since the war began. U.S. crude oil topped $108 per barrel on Sunday, as did the global benchmark Brent, which rapidly approached $110 a barrel. That’s caused U.S. gasoline prices to spike, jumping to $3.44 per gallon on Sunday, according to Gasbuddy.

The price spikes come as both parties seek to win over economically anxious voters ahead of the November midterm elections that will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control Congress for Trump’s final years in office. Trump promised to lower costs, including gas prices, during his 2024 campaign — but his approval on the economy has plummeted as voters express concern about affordability.

Liccardo and Gallego, who are members of the House Financial Services Committee and Senate Banking Committee, argue in their letter that the war is only making life less affordable for Americans.

“A prolonged conflict with Iran and wider military operations throughout the Middle East will only deepen the energy cost-crisis, burdening Americans to pay more at the pump, and exacerbating the affordability crisis facing too many Americans,” they wrote.

Meanwhile, millions of barrels of Russian oil are stranded at sea due to U.S. sanctions imposed as punishment for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright defended the move to temporarily allow the sale of Russian oil into India, calling it a “pragmatic step” that diverts oil that eventually would be sold to China. He said it could help alleviate price spikes in the immediate term, until the U.S. achieves its military aims in Iran.

“We’re not helping Russia by just accelerating the sale of their oil to stop the rise of energy prices and keep European and Asian refineries in oil,” Wright said. “We’re just doing pragmatic things to get through a short period that’ll bring in an era of even lower energy prices.”

Pressed on the reports of Russian intelligence sharing, Wright said, “There have been rumors of that, we don’t know if that’s true or not.”

He added: “Russia is an expert at causing trouble around the world.”

Liccardo and Gallego asked Bessent whether he plans to continue offering waivers if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. They also asked whether the Treasury Department had advance notice of the intelligence sharing between Russia and Iran, and whether there are any conditions that would cause the waiver to be revoked.

The pair also demanded information on any emergency oil price stabilization plans the administration had before launching the assault on Iran.

“The questions below address two distinct lines of accountability. The first concerns the specific waiver decision and its immediate consequences for sanctions integrity, energy markets, and troop safety,” they wrote of the questions. “The second concerns the administration’s planning failures prior to its unauthorized military action, and the absence of coordination with allies and partners, whose cooperation is essential to maintaining American sanctions architecture, which this waiver now undermines.”

Energy Secretary Chris Wright said oil and gas prices will begin to fall when the U.S. begins to knock out Iran’s ability to hinder tanker traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, as Americans weather spiking gas prices due to the war in Iran.

“The plan is to get oil and natural gas and fertilizer and all the products from the Gulf flowing through the straits before too long,” Wright said on Fox News Sunday. “We’re massively attriting their ability to strike with missiles and drones, and that rate of attrition will increase in the coming days. So we’ll be cautious, we’ll be careful, but energy will flow soon.”

President Donald Trump was elected to a second term in the White House in part by promising to lower gas prices and defeat high inflation. He has frequently touted lower gas prices ahead of the November midterm elections, which will determine control of Congress for the remainder of his term.

But gas prices and oil have spiked since the war began in Iran, with vessel bottlenecks in the Strait of Hormuz causing the surge. About 20% of global energy supply moves through the strait.

Gas has jumped to over $3.46 per gallon on average in the U.S., according to GasBuddy. U.S. crude oil has soared to more than $91 per barrel, and the global benchmark Brent crude has spiked to over $92 per barrel.

Wright said that “one large tanker has already gone through the straits with no issues at all.” Typically, roughly 100 tankers and cargo ships move through the strait every day.

Wright said the disruption would last for “weeks, certainly not months.”

“We believe this is a small price to pay to get to a world where energy prices will return back to where they were,” Wright said. “Iran will finally be defanged, and now you can see more investment, more free flow of trade, less ability to threaten energy supplies.”

When asked about potentially tapping the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to reduce pain at the pump, Wright suggested such a move is not necessary yet. In the past, the SPR has been tapped to mitigate disruptions in oil flows.

“We’re more than happy to use [the SPR] if needed,” Wright said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “But … it’s a logistics issue, where do they need oil? They need oil at refineries in Europe and in Asia.”

Trump has also downplayed the option of tapping the SPR.

“We’ve got a lot of oil. Our country has a tremendous amount,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Saturday. “There’s a lot of oil out there. That’ll get healed very quickly.”

WATCH: No traffic will flow through Strait of Hormuz until a resolution with Iran: Kpler’s Matt Smith

November’s midterm was always supposed to be about affordability. Then, the bombs began falling in Iran.

The expanding U.S. war in the Middle East threatens to scramble the cost-of-living narrative that has so far defined the contest for control of Congress. The election, now less than eight months away, will determine whether President Donald Trump retains his iron grip on Washington or spends his last two years in office fending off Democratic congressional majorities.

Both parties have sought to capitalize on kitchen-table issues, as Americans struggle to keep up with the rising costs of ordinary goods and services. The war in Iran now threatens to exacerbate those concerns — and Democrats are seizing on the opportunity to pillory Trump and Republicans for beginning a conflict that could make life even more expensive for ordinary Americans.

“Because there was no plan going in, I think there will be lots of things that are unforeseen consequences of this,” Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in an interview with CNBC. “I mean you saw how much gas has gone up in a day, oil futures have gone up, there are going to be a lot of knock-on effects.”

Some of those knock-on effects have already been evident. U.S. crude oil has jumped past $90 per barrel, up from $67 the day before the war broke out. The global market index Brent has skyrocketed to more than $90 per barrel. That’s caused gas prices to spike to about $3.38 per gallon, according to a national average from Gasbuddy, up more than 35 cents from the week before the war.

Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee, was quick to point out in an interview that liquefied natural gas prices have also spiked. Though U.S. increases have been modest so far, global LNG supply has been squeezed by a shutdown in Qatar — one of the world’s top LNG-producing countries. Natural gas is the largest electricity generator in the U.S., which is critical as the booming data center industry stresses the electric grid and increases utility costs.

“I think what American families have been feeling most acutely for the past year-plus is their energy bills, their utility bills rising,” Huffman said. “A big part of the utility bill increase is that natural gas is getting more and more expensive … a lot of our effort has been pushed into LNG exports instead of strategies that would lower bills for American consumers. That problem is only more amplified by this conflict.”

But a quick operation in Iran is far from certain, and any extended conflict could create an election-year quagmire for Republicans, said Brittany Martinez, executive director at Principles First and a former aide to then-House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

“If energy prices rise or markets stay volatile, affordability becomes a harder message for Republicans to carry cleanly,” Martinez said. “Republicans will argue that projecting strength abroad prevents greater instability, while Democrats will try to link any sustained price increases to foreign policy decisions. The real question is whether this turns into a prolonged conflict that voters feel in their household budgets.”

Many believe the military intervention in Iran has the potential to drag on, including Sen. Andy Kim, D-N.J., a national security advisor in the Obama White House.

“This administration doesn’t seem to think about this at all,” Kim said when asked about a potential power vacuum keeping the U.S. in the region longer. “The intelligence community has done a whole range of assessments that very much keep me up at night, and the fact that this White House, I assume, read the same things I read and still went through with this, I just find that to be absolutely reckless.”

Complicating matters more for the GOP is that the war in Iran is unpopular. A CNN poll released March 2 found that nearly 60% of those surveyed disapproved of the U.S. taking military action in Iran. That comes as Trump’s economic approval remains underwater: A Fox News poll released March 4 found that 61% of voters disapproved of Trump’s job on the economy.

“We don’t see it as an opportunity, but I do think it’s our responsibility to tell the American people exactly the decision that Donald Trump is making,” said House Democratic Caucus Chair Pete Aguilar, D-Calif. “He’s sending billions of our tax dollars to the Middle East for another war while he’s kicking people off of healthcare and … eliminating nutrition programs.”

Rep. Zach Nunn, an Iowa Republican seeking reelection in a district Cook Political Report with Amy Walter has labeled a “toss up,” said he is not concerned the war could drown out the GOP’s affordability message. He pointed to the sprawling tax and spending bill that was signed into law last year, increased domestic energy production, and housing legislation that advanced out of the House last month as examples of things the party will use to show action on rising costs.

War in the Middle East does not necessarily preclude Republicans from continuing to try to bring prices down, he argued.

“A more fulsome conversation would be, how do we make sure that we still deliver on affordability?” Nunn said in an interview. “I think this is the absolute right spot for us to be in.”

But Trump, the “America First” president who campaigned on ending the U.S.’s foreign entanglements, risks alienating his base with his Iran offensive. Democrats see the war as evidence of what they have been telling voters about Trump all along: he does not care affordability.

“We have a president who has campaigned on ending forever wars, and he has jumped into war without justification or explanation to the American people,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene, D-Wash., chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “So this has been broken promise after broken promise. This has been at the expense of the needs of everyday Americans. And I do think voters will hold them accountable in November.”