Maryland Gov. Moore Demands Clarity on Iran War, Warns of Rising Prices

Maryland Gov. Wes Moore used a nationally televised appearance Sunday to demand the White House explain what winning the war against Iran actually looks like, arguing that the absence of any clear mission or exit criteria is already costing Americans at the pump.

Moore appeared on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," where he was interviewed by CBS News senior White House correspondent Ed O'Keefe. The interview was taped April 3. Moore said he is praying for the families of the crew of a downed F-15 jet, as well as "some clarity from the White House."

The economic stakes are concrete. In the month since the United States and Israel attacked Iran on Feb. 28, the average price of unleaded gasoline has spiked more than a dollar a gallon, reaching $4.02 per gallon nationally. Diesel, which powers the trucks delivering groceries and farm equipment, has risen to $5.45 per gallon, more than $1.80 higher than a year ago. Driving those increases is the soaring cost of crude oil: U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude has risen more than 50% since the war began, while Brent, the international benchmark, has jumped nearly 60%.

The mechanism is the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has effectively closed the waterway, through which 20% of the world's oil normally flows. Normally, 130 commercial ships pass through it every day. Analysts at JPMorgan warned the West Coast, particularly California, could face a supply disruption by May due to its reliance on imports. GasBuddy's head of petroleum analysis Patrick De Haan projected retail gasoline could surge to $4.25 to $4.45 per gallon within two weeks, with diesel potentially reaching $5.80 to $6.05. The all-time pump record of $5.02 per gallon, set in June 2022 after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, may not hold.

Moore, a Democrat and Army combat veteran who served in the 82nd Airborne Division in Afghanistan, framed the price spike as a direct consequence of a war launched without a defined endgame. "I feel like we are lurching into another one of these forever wars that we're asking the American people to pay for," he said, adding that Trump "has still yet to articulate what exactly it is that we're doing." His prescription for the gas crisis was blunt: "stop fighting foreign wars."

The accountability case Moore constructed rested on Trump's own campaign commitments. Moore said Trump made three promises: that he was going to bring prices down, release the Epstein files, and not get the U.S. involved in foreign wars. "It's strike one, strike two, strike three," Moore said, "because on each and every one of those things that he promised he did not make happen."

Asked about Trump's expectation that the war would be over in two to three weeks, Moore said that timeline "is sitting horribly with me." "I'm thinking about the families of our service members, who right now are afraid to pick up the phone because they're afraid to hear what is on the other end of the line," he said.

The military toll is mounting alongside the economic one. Since the war began, at least 16 MQ-9 Reaper drones have been lost over Iran, three American F-15 fighter jets were shot down over Kuwait in a "friendly fire incident" (though all crew were safe), and 13 American service members have been killed. Trump, in a prime-time address Wednesday, said U.S. goals in Iran were "nearing completion" and vowed the military would hit Iran "extremely hard over the next two to three weeks."

Moore, who has been vocal about the war's lack of formal authorization and public explanation, noted the disconnect between presidential optimism and the absence of any measurable benchmark for success. He said Trump should not have authorized force before exhausting other options, and that the administration gave no "understanding of what the mission and the end game was." With crude oil benchmarks at levels not seen since major geopolitical shocks of prior decades, that question carries a price tag every driver sees each time they fill up.