Iran Leaves an Isolated Trump Grappling With Historic Oil Crisis

The war in Iran once again presented Donald Trump with an intractable dilemma.

He needed to calm energy markets that were surging once more after Iran struck energy infrastructure across the Persian Gulf, retaliating for an Israeli attack Wednesday on its biggest natural gas field.

So the president turned to social media, posting that the US had no advance knowledge of Israel’s plan — while warning he himself could target Iran if its retribution campaign continued.

But only hours earlier, people familiar with the coordination efforts told reporters in Washington that while the US didn’t participate, it had been read ...