Some presidents manage the economy. Donald Trump started a war in February that sent oil to $126 a barrel, closed the Strait of Hormuz, added roughly 50 cents to the national average price of a gallon of gas, watched the economy take what his own Breitbart described as a historic hit to consumer sentiment, then signed a ceasefire at Versailles last week, watched prices begin falling, and at midnight on Tuesday accused the oil companies of price gouging for not falling fast enough. The word for a man who creates a problem and then investigates the people cleaning it up is not president. It is just a word.
According to the Washington Examiner, Trump posted on Truth Social: “The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil. Those prices are dropping like a rock! 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!” He wrote this at midnight, about oil prices, which are falling, because of a peace deal, which he signed, ending a war, which he started.
The oil companies that are apparently gouging consumers by passing along falling crude prices at the speed of retail markets did not close the Strait of Hormuz. They did not open it. They did not sign the memorandum of understanding at Versailles with a pen handed to them by Marco Rubio. They sat in the middle of a supply chain that got strangled by a shooting war and are now un-strangling it, in the sequence in which un-strangulation occurs.
Brent Crude sat at $76 Wednesday morning, down from a peak of $126 in April. Gas prices, per the Washington Examiner, dropped nearly 60 cents per gallon since the deal. This is a recovery. The DOJ is now investigating the recovery for being insufficiently quick.
On Tuesday in Pennsylvania, according to the Washington Examiner, Trump told a crowd: “We just achieved a historic peace agreement with Iran to end the conflict in the Strait of Hormuz, and by the way, yesterday 19 million barrels of oil flowed out of the Strait of Hormuz, a very beautiful place.” He came home and threatened the companies selling those very beautiful barrels.
When the president opens a price gouging investigation into the companies benefiting from the peace deal he is simultaneously bragging about, what exactly is the theory of cause and effect?
Sources
Washington Examiner: Trump blasts oil companies for not lowering prices to consumers, accuses them of price gouging
Washington Examiner: Vulnerable Republicans stick with Trump despite sliding approval
Fox News: US-Iran peace deal nuclear talks live updates, June 23, 2026
