President Donald Trump’s strikes against the Iranian regime, and the regime’s all-out effort to create chaos in the region in response, has disrupted global energy production and delivery. But while energy prices are rising here in the United States, they are rising far more slowly than in Europe and in Asia. The conflict with Iran is decisively demonstrating that domestic energy production and national security are inextricably linked, and that Trump’s push for domestic energy production has made America safer, stronger, and more capable of defending its interests abroad.
Since American bombs began falling on Iran in February, Iran has hit Saudi Arabia’s biggest refinery, Qatar, Iraq, and Kuwait have cut production because of damage to their storage facilities by Iranian attacks, and fuel exports to Asia have fallen 90% as tanker transits through the Strait of Hormuz have slowed to a crawl. Natural gas prices are up by over 50% in Europe, while oil prices there have risen 15%. Japan gets 95% of its oil from the Middle East, and 70% of its oil transits through the Strait of Hormuz.
China, the world’s largest oil importer, has banned fuel exports to hoard supplies. Beijing urged refiners to halt new diesel and gasoline shipments and cancel existing ones, as the Iran war tightens crude flows and exposes its reliance on Middle Eastern imports. With 15% of its oil from Iran disrupted, and another 5% missing from Venezuela, China faces refinery cuts and blackouts, magnifying its economic woes amid trade tensions.
Europe learned the same lesson the hard way after Russia invaded Ukraine. For years, European leaders congratulated themselves on their climate posturing while leaving their economies dangerously reliant on Russian energy and exposed to the caprices of President Vladimir Putin. Putin weaponized that dependence, helping trigger an energy crisis that sent prices soaring and left Europe scrambling for alternatives. The European Commission itself says Russia’s aggression and gas weaponization provoked an unprecedented crisis. Even now, as the Iran war disrupts global supplies again, analysts are questioning whether Europe can escape renewed dependence on Russian energy. Dependency is not a token of climate seriousness. It is a token only of weakness.
Democrat-run California offers a warning closer to home. Instead of developing its own resources, California chose policies that reduced in-state production and left refineries increasingly reliant on foreign crude. According to the Energy Information Administration, foreign suppliers provided almost two-thirds of the crude oil refined in California in 2024. The California Energy Commission reports that Iraq alone supplied more than one-fifth foreign crude imports last year, with Brazil, Guyana, Ecuador, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates also major sources. So, progressive energy policy has not liberated California from fossil fuels. It has merely switched dependence to supplies from dirtier and more unstable foreign producers, leaving Californians to pay more for gasoline.
ANTI-ICE VIRGINIA DEMOCRATS GET ANOTHER INNOCENT PERSON KILLED
That is the choice before the whole country. If America wants to preserve a free world order, deter aggressors, and retain the ability to act abroad without panicking at every oil shock, it must embrace Trump’s policy of energy dominance.
A strong nation does not make itself dependent on hostile regions, foreign cartels, or the wishful thinking of affluent progressives. It develops its own resources, builds resilience, and uses abundance as an instrument of power. The alternative is not a green utopia. It is a weaker, more dependent America — a national version of California, vulnerable abroad and squeezed at home.