IMMEDIATE RELEASE 23 August 2026WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUNDToday’s Events in Historical PerspectiveAmerica’s Longest-Running Column, Founded 1932Defying the law of supply and demandBy Douglas Cohn and Eleanor Clift WASHINGTON – A duh factor is emerging, a factor so blatantly obvious that its consequences should be clear. But they are not at least to the president and the president’s acolytes who are too timid or cowed to speak truth to power.The air war against Iran sans boots on the ground has failed as military leaders warned it would, so the Trump administration is switching to “economic warfare” with another round of sanctions to prevent Iran from selling its oil. Like the air campaign, the economic campaign has not been thought through.Just as Trump in his bellicosity promised overblown results from the air campaign, he now claims Iran is “hanging by a thread,” and he is vowing to mount “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any county.”Trump branded the new approach as an “ECONOMIC D-DAY,” a tacit admission that bombing did not work, the Pentagon is running out of munitions, and the administration had to try something else.Treasury Secretary Bessent went on television and endorsed Trump’s latest gambit to quarantine Iran’s oil to bring down the regime. Surely Bessent, a veteran of Wall Street, must know better than to believe that cutting off Iranian oil and Russian oil with tough sanctions will somehow not harm the U.S. economy in the crucial two-plus months before the midterms.This is not college econ 101. It is a high-school lesson in basic supply and demand. Trump talks tough. Any country buying from Iran risks his wrath, but his words are hollow.Once again, Trump has embarked on another fool’s mission. He announces an objective to choke off Iran from selling its oil but fails to fully think through the consequences. If he succeeds with sanctions and removes a large amount of oil from the global market, the price of oil will go up. It is the supply and demand duh factor.It might be satisfying for Trump to think he has caused more pain for the Iranians, but American consumers will pay the price.Trump brags that we are oil independent, and that may be true. But if the oil we produce goes for $60 a barrel when oil producers can sell it abroad for twice that, what do you think will happen?Trump is threatening tariffs on countries that buy oil from Iran, but when asked how China will be affected by these tariffs, Trump and Bessent went silent. With Chinese President Xi scheduled to visit the White House on September 24th, keeping that high-level summit on track takes precedence.Getting China to agree to boycott Iranian oil is unlikely. And even if President Xi did agree to go along with this latest ploy, China could buy oil elsewhere, notably from Saudi Arabia or Venezuela, and such increased demand can only have one result.The bottom line is that anything removing a significant amount of oil from the global market is going to have an impact. And that impact is going to be felt here.Trump can call it economic warfare and fancy himself the General Eisenhower of economic D-Day, but the odds are against this latest punishment of Iran succeeding. And if Trump in just a matter of weeks or months backs down, as surely he must, he will once again underscore his reputation as TACO Trump (Trump always chickens out). See Eleanor Clift’s book Selecting a President, and Douglas Cohn’s latest books The President’s First Year: The Only School for Presidents Is the Presidency and World War 4: Nine Scenarios (endorsed by seven flag officers).Twitter: @douglas_cohn© 2026 U.S. News Syndicate, IncDistributed by U.S. News Syndicate, Inc.END WASHINGTON MERRY-GO-ROUND
CandC-23-August-2026-Defying-the-law-of-supply-and-demand.docx