‘Pay now or you pay later’ SC’s Graham says of high gas cost as price of Iran war

As fuel prices in South Carolina remain well above $3 a gallon, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said consumers could see some relief once “Iran is controlled.”

“They’re high, and I’d like to get them back down,” Graham said. “And I think they will come down when Iran is controlled.”

While South Carolinians are paying about a dollar more for gas than they were two months ago, Graham told reporters the war in Iran, which is entering its eighth week, was necessary.

“You think gas prices are high now?” Graham said at CMC Steel near Columbia. “Only imagine if Iran had a nuclear weapon to blackmail us all. This operation was necessary. Iran with a nuclear weapon would be the end of Israel, and it would come after us. We got to put them in a box, and gas prices will come down when the world believes Iran is contained.”

Gas prices skyrocketed across the U.S. in March after the beginning of the war in Iran disrupted oil supply chains. While South Carolina gas prices were well below $3 a gallon in February, costs were at $3.69 a gallon Monday, according to AAA fuel price estimates.

And over the weekend, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said gas prices likely wouldn’t drop below $3 a gallon until 2027, though he also said on CNN costs would go down with the end of the war. President Donald Trump, who ordered the strikes on Iran at the end of February, said Wright was “totally wrong” on his gas price predictions, The Hill reported.

Graham said once the war in Iran ends, gas prices should go down and stay low, and consumers should “feel that in the fall.”

“The war is going to wind down and peace is going to ramp up,” Graham said. “As soon as this war with Iran winds down, we’re going to go back to negotiating peace between Saudi and Israel, the biggest change in 2000 years, that will keep gas prices low. They will come down, but they’ll stay down, and the stock market will go up. I think you’ll feel that in the fall. When it comes to Iran, you pay now or you pay later.”

South Carolina’s senior senator has been encouraging of Trump’s continued war in Iran, arguing frequently in front of cameras and on social media the importance of keeping Iran from having a nuclear weapon. As the war has dragged on, and some Republicans have critized Graham’s rhetoric on conflict, he has supported the effort.

“I think we’re very near the end,” Graham said. “But we’ll be judged by what the outcome not when. It won’t be when it ended, it’ll be how it ended.”