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Frantic Trump, 80, Panics About Gas Prices in Midnight Meltdown

The president needs you to know that pain at the pump is totally not his fault.

Donald Trump’s provisional peace deal with Iran has failed to help Americans by lowering gas prices, and the president is starting to panic.

“The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil,” the president wrote in a frantic Truth Social post late Tuesday night.

“Those prices are dropping like a rock!” he went on. “In other words, customers are being ‘gouged.’ I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this. Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing!”

The national average gas price per gallon remains at $3.93 as of Tuesday, down from a peak of $4.56 over Memorial Day weekend, according to the American Automobile Association’s fuel tracker website.

Driving those prices is the president’s war with Iran, launched on Feb. 28, when the average national gas price was just $2.96 per gallon. In response to Trump’s attack, Tehran closed the Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime corridor in the Persian Gulf through which passes around one-fifth of the world’s oil. This had a knock-on effect on oil prices.

The president signed a provisional peace deal with the Islamist regime during a G7 summit in Paris last week. Iran pledged to reopen the strait in exchange for the U.S. lifting sanctions, unfreezing assets, and underwriting a $300 billion reconstruction fund.

Iranian leaders then said Saturday they had closed the Strait of Hormuz again, citing ceasefire violations after Israel resumed strikes against Iranian-aligned Hezbollah targets in southern Lebanon. The U.S. has denied Iran’s claims, insisting the regime does not control the strait.

A full reopening is likely to take time. The main central route through the strait is still heavily mined. Ships had been using narrower routes through the gulf prior to Saturday, and while traffic recovered briefly after Trump signed last week’s deal, it has stalled again following the latest closure.

Analysts forecast it may take up to six months, or even longer, for global oil supplies to recover from the shock, with any relief at U.S. pumps lagging further behind.

The president’s willingness to throw oil companies under the bus over persistently high costs belies the coziness of his longstanding relationship with the industry. Oil and gas executives spent an estimated $445 million to influence the 2024 election cycle in Trump’s favor, including some $96 million in direct donations to his campaign and supporting PACs, according to analysis by advocacy group Climate Power.

Since retaking the White House last year, Trump has implemented several policies that benefit the industry—such as declaring a “national energy emergency,” fast-tracking liquefied natural gas export approvals, and signing a sweeping tax-and-spending bill packed with subsidies for oil and gas producers.

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Polls suggest everyday Americans are calling the president’s bluff ahead of what promises to be a bruising battle for the GOP to retain control of the House and Senate in the November midterm elections.

Surveys indicate that more than three-quarters of voters, including a majority of Republicans, blame Trump for the rise in gas prices, which, coupled with dissatisfaction with other aspects of his administration, has handed Democrats an almost seven-point lead on the national congressional ballot ahead of the midterms.

The Daily Beast contacted the White House for comment on this story.

“President Trump was clear all along that there would be short-term, temporary disruptions to energy markets, and that oil and gas prices will quickly fall as soon as the Iran situation is resolved,” spokeswoman Taylor Rogers said.

“President Trump has a proven track record of bringing gas prices to historic lows, and the Administration continues to be laser-focused on delivering economic relief for the American people.”

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