WASHINGTON (AP) — Since starting a war with Iran caused oil and gasoline prices to spike, President Donald Trump has pivoted from a focus on keeping energy prices low to painting high oil prices as a positive.

The about-face comes as Trump’s team has struggled to offer a clear plan for opening up the critical Strait of Hormuz so that tankers full of oil are no longer stranded.

“The United States is the largest Oil Producer in the World, by far, so when oil prices go up, we make a lot of money,” Trump said Thursday on his social media site.

In his State of the Union address last month, Trump had bragged about gas prices at $2.30 a gallon, a figure that has since soared more than 50% to a national average of $3.60 a gallon, according to AAA.

The investment bank Goldman Sachs on Thursday said that based on its forecasts and historic experience, higher oil prices would cause inflation to be higher, growth to be slower and the unemployment rate to increase by the end of the year.

Benchmark oil prices have swung violently with Trump’s shifting statements and as most tankers avoid traversing the Strait of Hormuz. On Thursday, the global crude oil benchmark price jumped to $100 a barrel.

“The swings in Brent crude oil prices over the past several days are eye-catching and odds are volatility will remain because of the absence of a time line for when the conflict will deescalate and when the Strait of Hormuz, which is effectively closed, will see traffic begin to recover,” analysts at the consultancy Oxford Economics concluded.

The president has given a series of contradictory messages about his plans to address this issue. He said in a Monday news conference that the Strait of Hormuz “is going to remain safe” well after it was identified as a danger zone, claiming that the presence of the U.S. Navy and insurance for tankers would keep things secure.

By Tuesday, he said on Truth Social that Iran would face “Military consequences” that would be “at a level never seen before” if it placed mines in the Strait of Hormuz, later stressing that the U.S. military was blowing up Iran’s ships.

On Wednesday, Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright briefly posted the U.S. Navy had escorted a tanker through the strait — later deleting the false claim.