Trump Flips Out at Gas Companies Over ‘Totally Illegal’ Gouging: ‘DROP YOUR PRICE!’

AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana

President Donald Trump warned energy companies on Monday to lower gas prices and accused them of “totally illegal” price gouging.

As of Monday, the national average for a gallon of gas was $3.86 after hitting about $4.50 in recent months. Crude oil, meanwhile, is hovering around $70 a barrel after topping $100 on several occasions since February, when the U.S. and Israel launched the war against Iran. In response, Iran effectively shuttered the Strait of Hormuz, where 20% of the world’s oil flows. The war is technically ongoing, but the U.S. and Iran are currently in a tenuous ceasefire that apparently has investors feeling optimistic.

Over on Truth Social, Trump escalated his attacks on gas retailers and demanded that they lower their prices. He alleged that the companies are engaged in “totally illegal” price gouging (which he spelled ‘gauging’), and said if prices do not come down, there will be “big problems ahead”:

Gasoline Retailers must get their Prices down, IMMEDIATELY! 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! There will be no gauging, which is totally illegal. If Retailers don’t do this, big problems lie ahead! Start targeting around the $2.50 a Gallon number, and California should stop charging such heavy Taxes on their Gasoline. 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. President DONALD J. TRUMP

Last week, the president claimed his administration was “doing a big investigation” into gas prices.

“It’s ExxonMobil, it’s Chevron, it’s, uh, Shell, it’s, uh, BP, it’s a lot of ’em,” the president told reporters in the Oval Office on Wednesday. “The gasoline, or the oil prices, have come down so much, and we are not seeing anything at the pump by comparison to what it should be. We should be, in my opinion, at $2.25 right now at the pump.”

In late May, Trump downplayed gas prices, which were markedly higher then.

“Look, as soon as this war is over, gas is going to, you know, I had gasoline down to $1.85 in Iowa,” he said at the time. “And this is peanuts! And I appreciate everybody putting up with it for a little while. It won’t be much longer.”

Last week, Chevron CFO Eimear Bonner said it will take some time for prices to get back to pre-war levels.

“There is a lag between, you know, oil prices and reductions in oil prices and when that shows up at the pump, but we expect that prices will come down as things continue to normalize,” she explained.

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