Fox Business host Larry Kudlow has repeatedly downplayed rising fuel costs and growing inflation as a “small price to pay” for President Donald Trump’s war with Iran, calling the economic pain of Americans struggling with higher prices “temporary.” 

Trump’s ongoing war with Iran and the resulting closure of the Strait of Hormuz are having undeniable impacts on the American people in the form of increased fuel costs. According to AAA, the national average for a gallon of regular gas is $4.391 as of May 29. Inflation is up, too — the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the consumer price index rose 3.8% year-over-year in April. 

Kudlow has downplayed the economic effects of the Iran war since its outset. On March 9, he predicted that if the conflict didn't last more than “four, or five, six weeks, it can't have much of an economic impact,” saying, “I mean, $3.50 gasoline for a couple weeks to me doesn't mean anything.” He shrugged off rising prices again a few days later, saying, “Gasoline is up about 50 cents a gallon. Big deal.” 

As the war dragged into its third month, Kudlow continued to downplay rising gas prices and growing inflation. On his May 13 show, Kudlow said, “I don't care about a couple of months of $4 gasoline. Honestly, I don't care if the inflation rate goes to 5%. This is the defense of freedom and civilization and Western values, Judeo-Christian values.”

Kudlow, who served as director of the National Economic Council during Trump’s first term, admitted that “even if the war comes to a conclusion, it’s going to take a while” for costs to come down. But “it’s a small price to pay — a couple months of higher gasoline prices, etc. — for wiping out the scourge of the Earth,” he explained, referring to Iran. 

Kudlow continued to insist “it’s a small price to pay. I don’t give a damn.” He similarly dismissed “a lot of moaning and groaning and hand-wringing and so forth” about inflation, adding, “I don't care.”

After the April CPI report showed inflation rose to its highest point in nearly three years, Kudlow instead pointed to successes in the stock market. “I think the United States’ economy is strong,” he said. “I don't care — we have a couple bad months of inflation, it means nothing. It means absolutely nothing.”

“We may get two or three more bad months, OK?” he continued. “But when the war is over and they are destroyed, those prices are going to come down. Everybody knows that.”

Americans are bearing the brunt of high prices and the stock market is not an indicator of financial well-being for the average person. While it is true that most American adults have some stake in the success of the financial market, the overwhelming majority of financial assets are owned by the rich, meaning Kudlow's refrain that profits are “the mother's milk of stocks and the life blood of the economy” does not help people who are having to cut back their budgets and dip into emergency funds to pay for necessities. 

On May 14, Kudlow offered advice to those Americans: “It's $5 gasoline — $4.50 gasoline. OK. Live with it.”