In messages that appear to be directed at the American public, Iran has been highlighting the cost of the war that the United States and Israel launched against the country ahead of the United States midterm elections. Iranian officials have published articles in state-affiliated outlets stressing the disastrous impact of the war on oil prices and the US economy, while Iran’s chief negotiator and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has actively targeted US officials about rising costs and military spending. Sina Toossi, a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy, said Tehran is looking to increase the political cost of the war for Trump by trying to talk directly to the American public.
Trump’s Republican Party is looking to retain control of the Senate and House of Representatives in next month’s midterm vote. But the Democratic Party, which largely opposes the war with Iran, is mounting a strong challenge across the congressional electoral map, including in areas that have been conservative strongholds for decades, such as Texas. On Wednesday, Ghalibaf shared a news story on inflation rising to 3.7 percent last month along with a collage of negative headlines on the US economy.
The social media post also featured a comic strip from the Road Runner cartoon showing Wile E Coyote building a catapult that misfires and launches a boulder at him. Not in odds, but in the % increases,” Ghalibaf wrote in a message to US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has been leading the sanctions campaign against Iran. Bessent said last month that he represents “the house”, likening the economy to a casino while addressing the national debt and bond market.
Ghalibaf’s remark referred to the increase in inflation, underscoring that the cost of living keeps rising due to the war despite Bessent’s assertions. Days earlier, he shared an image of a ghost shaped like a bell curve, with diesel prices rising and housing affordability and consumer confidence falling. Since the start of the war on February 28, Iran has disrupted shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, sending energy prices soaring.
In the US, the price of diesel is at an all-time record of $6.33 per gallon (3.8 litres), according to the American Automobile Association, and gas is $4.33, up from less than $3 before the war. Iran has intensified its attacks on vessels around the strait in recent days after Trump and his aides repeatedly stressed that the waterway is under US control. The uptick in energy prices has fuelled overall inflation in the economy, leading the US Federal Reserve to raise interest rates last month at a time when Trump has been calling for them to be cut to stimulate economic activity.
In a letter to the American public on September 29, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) accused Trump of lying about the cost of the war and the state of the US economy, dismissing the president’s claims that oil prices would soon nosedive. Demand for American bonds has plummeted. In fact, countries are starting to offload their US bonds.
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