Trump Can't TACO Out Of This One

The world of international finance and global trade is in disarray today, and if you haven’t seen the data yet, you need to.

We are witnessing one of the most violent market disruptions in recent memory. Crude Oil WTI futures have spiked over 28% in a single session, while global stock futures are simultaneously crashing.

Why? Because the war Trump and TripleSec Def Hegseth started in Iran alongside their good buddy and fellow war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu has escalated into a regional war, and the primary arterial road for the world’s energy supply has been choked off.

First, let’s review the raw numbers.

This isn’t just a fluctuation; it’s a collision. As of right now (March 9, 2026), the market data is screaming red.

WTI Crude Oil futures have exploded, trading up over 28% to approximately $116.50. Brent Oil, the international benchmark, is not far behind, gaining 27% to trade near $117.74. This is the definition of a parabolic spike, driven by pure panic.

Combine that with a stock market that is losing all of its safe spaces for investors to hide.

• Dow Jones Futures are down over 1,000 points (-2.25%).

• Nasdaq 100 Futures have dropped more than 600 points (-2.58%).

• In Asia, the Nikkei 225 has fallen by more than 4.6%.

The S&P 500 VIX, which is the market’s primary volatility indicator, has shot up by roughly 24%. This indicates that prices are fluctuating wildly and investors don’t feel confident putting their money in risky securities.

Investors are dumping the riskiest assets at any price, rushing for safe havens, and paying a massive premium for energy. It is a destructive environment built on fear and uncertainty.

The cause of this panic is not a financial indicator; it is a geographic reality. The Strait of Hormuz, which handles over 20% of the world’s daily petroleum liquids, is effectively closed to Western commercial traffic.

Trump’s plan to have the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation insure tankers passing through the Strait has collapsed, with the fund saying it is short by over $200 billion to make it viable.

This is essentially a blockade, crippling energy exports. While Iran is reportedly allowing passage to some select vessels, specifically those signaling they are “CHINA OWNER” or have other non-Western affiliations, the overall commercial crossing rate has dropped from an average of 150 a day to near zero.

Major global shipping conglomerates such as Maersk and Hapag-Lloyd have suspended operations. Because tankers cannot safely exit the Gulf, production is backing up across the region. Kuwait, the UAE, and Iraq (which has already cut production by 60%) are being forced to scale back output because their storage tanks are full.

This is not a temporary supply disruption; it is a total energy bottleneck for some of the most important economies in the world, such as India and China.

The conflict driving this blockade is spiraling. Following the opening strikes of Operation Midnight Hammer on February 28, the Trump administration has shifted its rhetoric from “containment” to demanding the unconditional surrender of the Iranian regime.

The U.S. and Israel seem committed to a complete dismantling of the Iranian people. Israel recently targeted civilian oil facilities in Tehran for the first time, signaling a shift to critical infrastructure.

A major critique from allies is that the U.S. administration has made no effort to lay out a logical case for this war or define a clear exit strategy. Trump has been vocal in his criticisms of US allies not helping to bomb Iran into oblivion.

Iran has elected its next leader, Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba. They seem determined not to back down anytime soon, and destroying critical infrastructure will only allow the new Ayatollah and his hardliner supporters to have more leverage to keep fighting back against U.S. and Israeli aggression.

Netanyahu says that Israel has “an organized plan with many surprises to destabilize the regime and enable change. We have many more targets, and I will not detail them here” in a statement released March 7th, indicating they aren’t interested in backing down anytime soon either.

Over the past year, Trump has been able to back down from the crises he created when the stock market tanked or popular support for some policies dwindled. But this time, TACO simply won’t work.

The U.S. has spent the past 12 months systematically alienating allies with a series of threats, broken promises, global market panic, and outright violence. Now, he has an actual war on his hands with a partner, Israel, who wants to ethnically cleanse Iranians out of existence.

Turning away won’t magically fix things this time. This war has caused generational, systematic damage that can never be repaired. Humanity’s grandchildren will still be feeling the effects of what Trump and Netanyahu, two men who desperately cling to power to avoid criminal consequences, are doing on the international stage.

The strategy, for now, appears to be to evolve into maximum conflict, despite the escalating global market meltdown.

For global trade and energy markets, this is the perfect storm: a kinetic war in the heart of the world’s most critical energy corridor, with no diplomatic resolution in sight.

As the chaos spreads, it gives avenues for tyrants like Trump to hang on to their tenuous grip on power, by providing an “other” for the populace to blame as circumstances worsen.

The question remains whether or not the people of the United States and the world will band together against the oligarchs orchestrating this violence, or if we’ll succumb to it ourselves.