U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during an event with Artemis II astronauts, NASA Commander Reed Wiseman, NASA Pilot Victor Glover, NASA Mission Specialist Christina Koch and Canadian Space Agency (CSA) Mission Specialist Jeremy Hansen in the Oval Office of the White House on April 29, 2026 in Washington, DC, US.
Evelyn Hockstein | reuters
President Donald Trump said Wednesday he strongly supports the United Arab Emirates’ decision to leave the international oil cartel OPEC and believes the move will lower energy prices.
“I think it’s great,” Trump told reporters at the White House after meeting with the Artemis II astronauts.
UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan is “very smart,” Trump said, and he probably wants to go his way. This is a good thing.
“I think ultimately it’s a good thing to lower the price of gas, lower oil, lower everything,” Trump said. “They’re having some problems in OPEC,” he said.
Oil prices have surged since the US and Israel launched a war with Iran on February 28.
In a surprise announcement on Tuesday, the UAE said it would end its long association with the group on May 1.
The decision was seen as a blow to OPEC and its 11 remaining members, which have coordinated on setting oil prices and production quotas for more than six decades.
The UAE was OPEC’s third-largest oil producer in February, behind Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
Abu Dhabi concluded after reviewing its production policy and capacity that withdrawing from the group was in its national interest, its energy ministry said in a statement.
The ministry stressed its appreciation of the OPEC alliance and said it values decades of cooperation with the organization’s members.
But the announcement comes as the UAE has faced repeated missile and drone attacks by fellow OPEC member Iran, which has responded to the war initiated by the US and Israel by launching attacks on regional powers.
Tehran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz has also severely hampered the UAE’s ability to export oil, threatening its economy.
The Trump administration has responded to Iran’s actions in the strait by imposing its own retaliatory blockade of Iranian ports.
The interference across the strait has led to an apparent impasse in talks. Iran has proposed a reciprocal reopening of the strait while postponing nuclear talks until later, but Trump rejected the plan, Axios Information was given on Wednesday morning.
“They’re suffocating like stuffed pigs, and it’s going to get worse for them. They can’t have nuclear weapons,” Trump told the outlet.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon, Trump called his blockade “genius” and “100% foolproof,” suggesting it would continue until Iran waves the white flag.
“They’re going to have to cry, uncle,” Trump said, adding that he “gives up.”
Asked whether a blockade would be enough to bring Iran to the peace negotiating table or whether further strikes would be necessary, Trump said it “depends.”
US Central Command is preparing for a possible “small and powerful” wave of strikes in hopes of breaking the standoff with Iran, Axios reports.
— cnbc spencer kimball Contributed to this report.