US President Donald Trump has told petrol retailers to bring their prices down immediately and warned of “big problems” ahead if they do not.
“Gasoline Retailers must get their Prices down, IMMEDIATELY,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday.
“There will be no gauging [sic], which is totally illegal,” Trump posted.
“If Retailers don’t do this, big problems lie ahead! Start targeting around the $2.50 a Gallon number,” he wrote.
“The Retailers must quickly react to this statement, and do what they know is right — DROP YOUR PRICE FOR OUR GREAT AMERICAN PEOPLE!”
Trump took particular aim at California, urging the state to also lower its taxes on petrol.
“Soon the Tax will be higher than the Product itself, and the United States will not stand for it, nor will the People of California, who are being abused by these ridiculous Taxes, and by their own Government,” Trump wrote.
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has been one of Trump’s fiercest critics in the president’s second term, including of his push to promote fossil fuels.
California is also doubling down on renewable energy and is hoping to have a carbon-neutral electrical grid within 20 years.
But with petrol prices surging since the US-Israel war on Iran, the Trump administration is pushing for more domestic fuel production and has invoked emergency powers to restart an oil pipeline in California that had been shut down because of a massive spill in 2015.
Separately, Trump said last week that he had ordered an investigation into major oil companies over high petrol prices.
“The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil,” he wrote in a Truth Social post on June 24.
“Those prices are dropping like a rock! In other words, customers are being ‘gouged’. I have instructed the DOJ [Department of Justice] to immediately start looking into this,” he posted.
Trump’s demand for lower petrol prices in the US comes as he faces criticism for launching the war on Iran and for its impact on costs for millions of Americans, and as November’s mid-term elections draw closer.
The president has repeatedly said that fuel prices would “come down like a rock” after the conflict with Iran ends, but economists have disputed Trump’s assertions and predict longer-term economic repercussions due to the conflict. (Al Jazeera)