President Donald Trump has drained 12 percent of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve to keep gasoline prices down while the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. The reserve currently holds 365 million barrels, down from 413 million barrels at the start of the year.

• In the 1970s, after opec embargoed oil sales to the U.S., the government established a reserve with a maximum capacity of 714 million barrels. It took a decade to fill it up past 400 million barrels. Once it passed that benchmark, no president allowed it to dip below it—until Joe Biden.
• After Russia invaded Ukraine and the Biden administration released about 180 million barrels from the reserve, its levels dropped to a 40-year low in July 2023.
• The reserve increased by 47 million barrels over the next 19 months. But after Iran closed Hormuz in early March, President Trump has been draining it again by about 1.4 million barrels per day. At this rate, it will hit a new all-time low around Independence Day.
• The U.S. is a net exporter of petroleum, but it still needs robust reserves to prevent shocks to its system. Back-to-back disruptions from the wars in Ukraine and Iran have drained the reserve faster than it can be replenished.

Bible prophecy shows more shocks are coming.

• Deuteronomy 28:52 prophesies of U.S. will be besieged “in all its gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down.” The closure of Hormuz is just a small foretaste of what this siege will be like if the American people do not turn back to God and His law.

The precipitous decline in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve is indicative of a precipitous increase in overall U.S. strategic vulnerability.