Trump says Houthis trying to increase oil prices before US elections

United States President Donald Trump has said that the Houthi rebel group in Yemen are stepping up attacks on infrastructure in Saudi Arabia in a bid to increase energy prices in the run-up to the US midterm elections.

Trump said on Tuesday that the Houthis were behaving “very badly” and repeated his threat that the US could step up military attacks across the Middle East after the November elections.

“They’ve [the Houthis] been silent for a long time, but now they’ve emerged again, probably at the behest of Iran, which is a Failing Nation, with No Navy, No Airforce, the World’s Worst Economy, and 301 percent Inflation, in a very nasty way, hitting Saudi Arabia, and purposefully trying to drive up Oil Prices, probably prior to the US Elections,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “NOT NICE.”

Trump’s decision to launch a war on Iran with Israel in February has caused surging energy prices and rising concerns about cost of living issues in the US, where voters will soon decide whether the president’s Republican Party maintains its majorities in the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Democrats hope to capitalise on the president’s unpopularity and voter frustration over the war and rising costs to seize control of one or both houses of Congress, allowing them to block Trump’s legislative agenda for the remainder of his time in office.

Trump added on Tuesday that he would “never forget” the Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, seeming to threaten renewed US military attacks after the midterms, widely seen as a referendum on Trump’s second term.

“Somebody should explain to them [the Houthis] that I’m not running in the Elections, I’ve already won, IN A MASSIVE LANDSLIDE, but I’ll be there after the Elections, and I will never forget!” he said.

Polls have shown that Trump’s war on Iran is deeply unpopular, with a recent AP-NORC poll finding that nearly 70 percent of voters say the war was not worth fighting.

Trump has dismissed unfavourable polls as “fake” and pointed to crowds at his political rallies as proof of his popularity.