Trump says he thought gas would go ‘double and triple,’ and calls it ‘a small price to pay’

Good news, drivers: the president always expected your gas to cost a lot more. In Port Huron, Michigan on Sunday, he said that when he made the Iran decision, “I thought gas would be double and triple. And it’s a small price to pay for taking a nuclear weapon away from maniacs.”

The lead-in was the pep talk: “Short term, you’re taking a hit.” Then, reassuringly: “It’s not a big hit. I thought gasoline would go up much more.” The hit, per AAA on Sunday: regular at a $4.29 national average, against $3.06 a year ago. Diesel at $6.35, against $3.66. By our math, that’s up about 40% and 74%. Not double. Just your problem.

It’s his second “small price to pay” in a week. Last Tuesday in the Oval Office, it was rural voters’ fuel bills. What’s new is the confession: he says he expected double and triple, and did it anyway. In between, he told the $1.85-a-gallon story he says he tells “all the time,” and added: “And I have no second guess.”

So the plan was double or triple. Anything under that is, by his accounting, a discount.