President Donald Trump is feeling the heat over sky-high gas prices—so he’s found a bonkers way to make it everyone else’s fault.
The billionaire president rode back to power promising to make life more affordable, including at the pump. Instead, Americans are paying more than a dollar extra on average to fill their tanks compared with when Trump entered office last year, with the national average price of a gallon now at $4.37.
The obvious culprit is Trump’s seven-month-old war with Iran, which has caused an international supply bottleneck that has driven oil prices to historical highs.
Trump, however, tried to wash his hands of the high prices in a wild Truth Social post on Monday, pointing the finger at Ukraine and California instead.
“What’s driving up Gasoline is no longer the Strait of Hormuz, because Record Numbers of Barrels are coming out now on an almost daily basis, but the word, ‘Refineries,’ where Russia’s are being blown up by Ukraine, and where ours are being closed up, in Blue States, like California, by the Dumocrats,” ranted the 80-year-old president, who is facing a potential GOP rout in the midterm.
Although crude oil exports from the Middle East did exceed pre-war levels on some days last month, according to Al Jazeera, which cited provisional data from ship-tracking firm Kpler, uncertainty over the president’s war and the threat of further Iranian strikes are the things keeping gas prices elevated.
The continued threat of attacks has prompted tanker operators to charge higher fees for crossing the Strait, while the cost of insuring a vessel has also soared since Trump launched his war in February, according to The New York Times.
A global refining capacity crunch is also driving gas prices higher, but refineries shutting down in California aren’t the reason—the bulk of the U.S.’s refining capacity is concentrated in GOP-controlled states such as Texas and Louisiana.
The real disruptions are coming from Middle Eastern refineries damaged in Trump’s war with Iran, along with Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian facilities as the country defends itself from Vladimir Putin’s invasion, according to CNN.
While Trump may refuse to own the pain at the pump, more and more Americans appear to have a clear idea of who and what they blame.
In Alaska, where gas prices have climbed above $5 a gallon, Trump voters voiced their frustration with the president to MS NOW last week.
“I can’t go see my daughter out of state, and we’re not buying as many groceries, and we’re not really doing anything fun or entertainment unless it’s free,” three-time Trump voter and paralegal Gayle Michaelson told the network.
“I would tell him what he initially told the voters is BS—that these prices weren’t supposed to be so high—and look what’s happened.”
Fellow three-time Trump voter and trucker Meffy Tagalu said, “We need to get out of that war and fix all the prices. You know, we’re hurting really bad.”
