President Donald Trump slammed gasoline retailers for failing to lower prices for Americans.
In a Monday evening Truth Social post, Trump wrote that the retailers must lower prices immediately because they are too high.
“There will be no gauging, which is totally illegal,” he wrote, likely referring to gouging, the act of overcharging customers. “If retailers don’t do this, big problems lie ahead!”
He said retailers should “start targeting around the $2.50 a gallon number,” and warned that California should stop charging heavy taxes on its gasoline. The state is set to increase the gas tax rate from 61.4 cents per gallon to 63.4 cents per gallon on July 1.
As of Monday, the average gas price nationwide stood at $3.86 per gallon, according to data from the American Automobile Association. California and Hawaii currently have the highest gas prices in the country, at $5.45 and $5.49 per gallon, respectively.
Trump’s Truth Social post comes about a week after he slammed big oil companies for keeping oil prices high despite easing tensions in the Middle East and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
“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!” he wrote on Wednesday.
He added that he had instructed the Justice Department to investigate oil companies.
Chevron’s finance chief Eimear Bonner told CNBC on Thursday that energy providers were doing what they could, but it would take time for prices to come down.
“It’s going to take time, though. 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,” Bonner told CNBC.
Gas prices have skyrocketed since the start of the US-Iran war in February, with the nationwide average climbing to well above $4 per gallon, per the AAA. They have come down slightly after peace talks with Iran were initiated, and after Trump announced a ceasefire last week.
