The Trump administration is calling a six-month shooting war with Iran "not a war" while American drivers pay record diesel prices and the Pentagon burns through missile stockpiles guarding shipping lanes for multinational oil companies.

Vice President JD Vance told reporters Thursday he "wouldn't call it a war" and claimed "there is no active shooting" — the same day Iran fired missiles and drones at Kuwait, striking near a U.S. base at Ahmad al-Jaber Air Base. Kuwait's army confirmed intercepting the attack. Iran also claimed strikes on a U.S. base in the UAE. So much for no active shooting.

The word games matter. AP reported the White House reclassified four fallen American soldiers and dozens of wounded troops into a new category called "Overseas Operations" after a brief ceasefire collapsed in July — moving them out of the official war casualty count. If it's not a war, the dead and wounded are easier to explain before the November midterms.

Meanwhile, the tab keeps climbing. The conflict has cost Washington roughly $40 billion as of July, according to CNN. The U.S. military has exhausted nearly 80% of its THAAD missile interceptors compared to pre-war levels. The Strategic Petroleum Reserve has plunged to its lowest point since 1983 as the administration drains emergency stocks to cushion the blow at the pump.

The cushion isn't working. Regular gas averages $4.15 a gallon nationally, up from $3.19 a year ago. Diesel hit a record $5.85 a gallon Friday. Brent crude sits above $95 a barrel — roughly $25 higher than before the war started.

Vance's answer to when it ends: ask the Iranians. "I don't know the answer to that question," he said Thursday, declining to set "artificial timelines." He insisted the U.S. military has prevented a global "energy crisis" by escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, where about 20% of the world's traded oil once flowed daily.

But independent data tells a different story than the White House briefing room. Ship transits through the strait averaged 102 last week, according to Lloyd's List Intelligence — compared to 130 or more per day before the war. TankerTrackers.com estimates roughly 5 million barrels per day exiting the strait over the past 28 days, a fraction of the prewar 20 million. The administration claims 15 to 18 million barrels on recent days, but the gap between government numbers and independent tracking is wide enough to sail a tanker through.

CNN framed the conflict as a "stalemate" both sides want to sustain without escalation. Fox buried the costs and led with Vance's claim that Trump's leadership averted an energy crisis. Euronews reported that Iran is vowing revenge after a U.S. strike hit a wedding in the coastal town of Kuhestak, killing at least four people including a child — an incident Vance said is under investigation but dismissed by casting doubt on Iranian media. That echoes the early days of the war, when the U.S. initially denied striking a girls' school that killed more than 120 children, only to confirm it after investigation.

The war began February 28 with U.S.-Israeli attacks that killed Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in the opening salvo. Trump has said he "couldn't care less" about negotiating, adding he likes America's position "now much better." The Pentagon is depleting U.S. defenses and the Treasury is draining petroleum reserves to keep multinational oil moving through a choke point 7,000 miles from American shores — and nobody in Washington will say when it stops or what victory looks like.

The question isn't whether the Strait of Hormuz stays open. It's who it stays open for — and why American sailors and American wallets are the ones paying to keep it that way.