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President Donald Trump is downplaying Americans’ concerns about rising oil and gas prices as a result of the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, claiming in a recent social media post that the price increases would somehow benefit the U.S.
“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 claimed in a Truth Social post on Thursday.
In a stark example of cognitive dissonance, earlier this week, Trump sought to assure his followers that prices would soon go down.
“Short term oil prices, which will drop rapidly when the destruction of the Iran nuclear threat is over, is a very small price to pay for U.S.A., and World, Safety and Peace,” he wrote.
Higher prices for oil will likely only benefit oil and gas producers. For consumers reliant on fossil fuels, higher prices will mean higher spending costs to refuel their vehicles.
Trump’s latest comment also glosses over some key facts — namely, that Iran was not a nuclear threat to the U.S. or the world before he started the war, nor did it pose an imminent threat to U.S. interests in general.
During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump vowed to lower prices of numerous consumer products, including gasoline, claiming he would bring prices down to $2 per gallon, on average across the country, for regular unleaded gas. He has not reached that goal since reentering office, and with the war on Iran increasing prices, it’s unlikely to happen anytime soon.
Indeed, the last time gas was under $2 per gallon (besides when the coronavirus pandemic drove prices down) was in March of 2016, under former President Barack Obama.
The week before Trump announced he was launching a U.S. war with Iran, the price of gasoline was at $2.937 per gallon, on average, across the U.S. As of Thursday afternoon, the price is up to $3.598 per gallon, according to AAA, a 22.5 percent increase in costs.
Americans are indeed feeling the pain at the pump. According to an Economist/YouGov poll published on Tuesday, 70 percent of Americans say they have noticed an increase in gas prices over the past year, versus just 24 percent who say prices have decreased or haven’t changed. That’s a stark turn of events since the same poll asked that question in early February, when just 38 percent said prices had increased over the past year and 54 percent said prices hadn’t changed or had gone down over that time.
Like Trump, many Republican lawmakers are downplaying the higher costs of gas, with some arguing the spike will only be temporary.
“It will take a couple of weeks, but gas prices will come back down,” Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-Louisiana) recently said.
Others have resorted to claiming that higher prices are not that burdensome.
“The public understands the necessity of what we’re doing. War is never pleasant,” Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi) said, despite multiple polls showing that Americans are opposed to the war.
Still others, like Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Alabama), have resorted to lying to defend the president’s war.
“I never paid less than $3.50 a gallon” when former President Joe Biden was in office, Tuberville purported. “I paid $2.79 this week in Alabama. It’s not a problem.”
As reporting from MS NOW points out, there were multiple times during the Biden presidency when gasoline was below $3 per gallon in Alabama. Data from AAA also shows that it is highly unlikely that Tuberville’s constituents are paying $2.79 per gallon for regular grade gas right now, as the state overall is paying around $3.247 per gallon, and his home of Lee County is paying around $3.215 per gallon.
Notably, gasoline prices during Biden’s presidency rose in large part due to the reopening of the economy following the pandemic, when the supply of oil struggled to keep up with demand. Meanwhile, rising prices across the globe right now are due largely to the decision to launch unprovoked military attacks on Iran.
The situation is reaching crisis levels, as many countries are recognizing that higher oil costs could last longer than originally anticipated. On Wednesday, the International Energy Agency announced that its member countries would release 400 million barrels of oil from their reserves in an effort to help ease prices, and the U.S. announced that it would release an additional 172 million barrels from its reserves.
Despite these announcements, oil prices exceeded $100 per barrel on Thursday, meaning that gas prices, too, will likely continue to increase.
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