Trump Sides with Oil Giants, Demands Gas Stations Cut Prices While Attacking California’s Progressive Taxes
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President Donald Trump, using his Truth Social platform, called on gasoline retailers to lower prices to $2.50 per gallon, scapegoating California’s fuel taxes and ordering the Justice Department to investigate supposed price gouging, all while ignoring the role of oil corporations’ profiteering.
On Monday, President Donald Trump took to his Truth Social platform to demand that gasoline retailers across the United States lower pump prices, suggesting a target of $2.50 per gallon. Despite crude oil trading near $68 a barrel, Trump blamed retailers for high prices, threatening them with 'big problems' if they failed to comply, while conveniently overlooking the record profits of oil corporations and the broader systemic issues in the fossil fuel industry.
'Gasoline retailers must get their prices down, immediately,' Trump wrote, pressuring small businesses while letting oil giants off the hook. 'The retailers must quickly react to this statement, and do what they know is right — drop your price for our great American people!'
Trump once again targeted California’s progressive gasoline tax structure, claiming the tax could soon exceed the price of fuel itself. Instead of acknowledging the need for public investment and climate action funded by such taxes, he called for the state to stop imposing what he called 'heavy taxes.'
These remarks came after Trump ordered the Department of Justice to investigate alleged price gouging by major energy companies, a move that critics see as political theater rather than a genuine attempt to hold corporations accountable. Previously, he accused oil companies of not passing on lower crude costs to consumers, but failed to address the underlying corporate greed driving up prices.
According to the American Automobile Association, the national average price for regular gasoline was $3.86 per gallon on June 29, down from $4.39 a month earlier but still above the previous year’s $3.19. Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate crude futures hovered around $70 per barrel.
On June 17, Trump signed a memorandum of understanding related to Iran, though he made no direct connection between the agreement and fuel prices, leaving questions about his true priorities.