Trump Chief Says There Are ‘Guys Living In Caves’ Responsible For Strait Of Hormuz Debacle

National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett gave an eyebrow-raising explanation for the ongoing issues with the Strait of Hormuz while speaking Wednesday with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.

The conversation kicked off after Bartiromo asked Hassett for an update on the strait after oil prices recently dropped since the conflict with Iran began in February. The war caused the closure of the strait, a crucial shipping chokepoint for global oil.

“Today’s national average gasoline [is] now at $3.84 a gallon, that’s down from $4.32 a month ago, Kevin. Is there anything you could tell us in terms of the update in the strait this morning?” Bartiromo questioned in a clip obtained by Mediaite.

“Right. Well, the president gets an update on the movement every day and a lot of that update is classified so one has to speak carefully and gently about it. The bottom line is the traffic went way up basically after the deal was made ― way, way up, heading up close to what you would expect,” Hassett began.

Noting “there were a couple of hiccup days,” he then blamed “guys living in caves” for the debacle.

“One of the ways to think about the straits is that there are a bunch of guys living in caves that live in the straits that may or may not be in steady communication with the people that we’re negotiating with who have stuff, you know, like, little better than a rubber band that they can shoot at a boat.”

Hassett continued, “Whether there will be a few more of those or not is something that nobody knows, but the bottom line is, there are very good faith negotiations going on with leaders. … We expect very much that this is going to be something that cruises to normalcy sometime really, really soon.”

Hassett’s remarks came after mixed messaging over the last few weeks from the Trump administration and Iran about the state of the Strait of Hormuz, including nuclear inspections and shipping.

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