Multi-billionaire President Donald Trump was ripped for waving away Americans’ gas price woes as his war in Iran enters its seventh week.
When asked by a reporter at the White House Thursday how much longer Americans would have to bear the price increase caused by the war, Trump falsely claimed they’ve actually gone down.
“Well, they’re not very high,” the president said before rambling. “If you look at what they were supposed to be in order to get rid of a nuclear weapon, with the danger that entails, so the gas prices have come down very much over the last 3, 4 days.”
“Four dollars a gallon still,” the reporter added.
“That’s what ABC says,” Trump complained. “But if you look at, the stock market is up. Everything is doing really well.”
Gas is currently at a nationwide average of $4.09 a gallon, according to AAA.
Trump has previously shown little regard for how his war in Iran is impacting American consumers, especially as gas and oil prices have skyrocketed domestically.
Over the weekend, he admitted he thought that gas prices would actually be “much” worse than they are, so the current price made him “very happy.”
Trump’s Thursday comments on the price of gas were ill-received.
Democratic Congressman Shri Thanedar quoted George Orwell, writing on social media, “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
Wisconsin Democratic Rep. Marc Pocan posted: “Coming from the guy who hasn’t put gas in a car since he filled his Lamborghini in 1995,” and attached an image of Trump at a Florida gas station when gas cost $1.29 a gallon.
“Marie Antoinette speaks!” author Brandon Weichert exclaimed on X.
“‘Let them eat stocks.’ Marie Antoinette for the 21st century,” one online user wrote.
“The concept of $4 a gallon is completely unknown to a billionaire like Trump,” one social media user wrote. “He literally can’t comprehend what that means to the average working person.”
The Daily Beast reached out to the White House for comment.
Officials in the Trump White House have previously dismissed consumer concerns about Trump’s war increasing prices.
Kevin Hassett, the director of the National Economic Council, outright admitted that increased prices were the least of the administration’s concerns.
“If it were to be extended, it wouldn’t really disrupt the U.S. economy very much at all,” he said of the war on CNBC last month. “It would hurt consumers, and we would have to think about if that continued, what we would have to do about that, but that’s like really the last of our concerns right now.”
