- The President wants average gas prices cut to just $2.50 per gallon.
- The national average price for regular gas in the US is currently $3.86.
- President Trump wants to stamp out price gouging among retailers.
US President Donald Trump has warned gasoline retailers that “big problems lie ahead” if they fail to cut prices at the pump right away. Oil climbed to nearly $120 a barrel at the outbreak of the war in Iran, but it has since retreated a long way, sitting near $70. That drop, in Trump’s telling, should already be showing up in what drivers pay.
Writing on Truth Social, President Trump told retailers they must start targeting around $2.50 a gallon. He then took specific aim at California, declaring the state should stop charging high gas taxes and making the bold claim that “soon the Tax will be higher than the Product itself, and the United States will not stand for it.”
Read: After Causing Gas Prices To Spike, Trump Is Now Furious They Aren’t Falling Faster
“Gasoline Retailers must get their Prices down, IMMEDIATELY!” Trump added. “They’re too high considering that Oil is now at $68 a Barrel, and heading south. The Retailers must quickly react to this statement, and do what they know is right — DROP YOUR PRICE FOR OUR GREAT AMERICAN PEOPLE!”
The leader of the free world then wrote, “There will be no gauging, which is totally illegal.” Presumably, he meant to write that price gouging is illegal, but he’s obviously not one to care about proper grammar.
Trump’s Fight Against Big Oil
As of early this week, the average price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the US was sitting at $3.86. While this is down from an average high of $4.39 four weeks ago, it’s still higher than the average of $3.18 a year ago.
This is far from the first time Trump has aimed at gas retailers across the country. Last week, he revealed he had instructed the Department of Justice to immediately start looking into why “the big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil,” noting that “customers are being ‘gouged.’”
