CNN delivers Trump 'tough news' as report shows largest gas price hike in six decades

While it’s no secret that President Donald Trump’s war against Iran has sent oil prices soaring, a new report Friday from the Bureau of Labor Statistics left CNN stunned after the true extent of price hikes at the pump were revealed.

“This was a hot inflation report, and the fingerprints of the war in the Middle East are all over this report,” said CNN’s Matt Egan, who went on to further analyze the BLS’ March Consumer Price Index report.

The report revealed that the average price of common goods in the United States rose in March by 0.9%, far above the typical monthly increase of between 0.2% and 0.3%, and by 3.3% when compared with a year earlier. Leading the price hikes was gasoline, which had jumped in March by a staggering 21.2%.

“Three quarters of the monthly increase in prices was driven by the fact that gas prices skyrocketed by 21% month-over-month,” Egan said. “That's the most since they started tracking this back in 1967 when [former President Lyndon B. Johnson] was in the White House!”

While the costs of other goods like groceries and airfare were largely unchanged between February and March, Egan warned that experts have projected that to be short-lived as the trade through the Strait of Hormuz – a critical shipping channel through which significant shares of the world’s oil and fertilizer flow – remains disrupted as a result of Trump’s war against Iran.

“The war is clearly making life more expensive for Americans, and this is likely not over,” Egan said. “This is not just a March story, we're going to continue to see the impact of the war in the inflation reports going forward, which just means the cost of living is likely to get worse.”

“Tough news this morning,” CNN’s Kate Bolduan added.