Maggie Haberman Torpedoes Trump ‘Tough’ Talk as Oil Tankers Explode: ‘There’s Clearly Not a Plan To Deal With This’

New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman torpedoed President Donald Trump’s talk of oil tankers “showing some guts” as they face fiery destruction, noting Trump “clearly” did not have a plan for the issue beyond that.

Among the myriad problems the U.S. faces almost two weeks into the Iran war are the attacks on oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz that have exacerbated surging prices and roiled the stock market.

Haberman was a guest on Thursday night’s edition of CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins, during which anchor Kaitlan Collins asked about the White House’s awareness of “how bad this could get.”

“I don’t know why there wasn’t some kind of a contingency for what we’re seeing now,” Haberman told Collins:

KAITLAN COLLINS: Maggie, what’s your sense of whether the White House was aware of how bad this could get with the Strait of Hormuz, with gas prices here at home, with the ramifications of this war with Iran.

MAGGIE HABERMAN: It’s an excellent question, Kaitlan, and I think there’s a difference between there’s — not a broad — broad question of the White House and every senior adviser in it, but exactly what was in the President’s ear and what he was thinking about.

The President does know that there is a correlation between gas prices and oil. It’s been very clear in everything the President has said, and he said this publicly, he thought this was going to be over by now. I don’t know why he thought that, and I don’t know why there wasn’t some kind of a contingency for what we’re seeing now. But there clearly is not a plan to deal with this, beyond talking about how the tankers should be tough and keep going through. And that’s — it’s not — it’s not working.

So, this seems to be something that is going to go on for another couple of weeks. And the President has indicated various timelines of what he wants to A, when he wants to leave, and B, what he was hoping to accomplish. This might not be up to him, at this point. And so, we will see.

But yes, this is going to be one of many lingering questions about what exactly happened here.

COLLINS: Yes, I think that’s a good point that, because everyone’s kind of waiting to hear from him. I mean, I’ve talked to other officials–

HABERMAN: Right.

COLLINS: –and different countries who have said, they’re really waiting for the end point of this war to come, when the President decides.

But even if he decides that tomorrow, it doesn’t mean the ramifications of this will stop tomorrow.

Watch above via CNN’s The Source with Kaitlan Collins.

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