Trump blames Democrats and Ukraine for soaring U.S. fuel prices, not Iran war | Oil and gas news

Trump places blame for rising fuel prices on Democratic-led states, such as California, and Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries.

As the U.S. midterm elections approach, President Donald Trump has tried to blame rising fuel prices from the U.S.-Israel war on Iran on attacks by Democrats and Ukraine on Russian refineries.

“What’s driving up the gas is no longer the Strait of Hormuz, because record numbers of barrels are now coming out almost daily, but the word ‘refineries,’ where Russia’s are being destroyed by Ukraine, and ours are being shut down, in blue states, like California, by the Dumocrats,” Trump said in a Truth Social article Monday.

While Trump says domestic refinery shutdowns are behind the surge, daily exports through the Strait of Hormuz have actually plunged 97% since the start of the war, choking off global supplies.

Gasoline prices continue to rise for consumers. The average price of a gallon (3.79 liters) is $4.36, up from $4.14 a month ago and $2.98 on Feb. 28, when the United States and Israel first struck Iran, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA), which tracks gasoline prices daily.

“Ongoing conflicts with Iran and the war between Russia and Ukraine are mutually reinforcing, hurting oil product markets, but flows in the Middle East are far from normal,” Rachel Ziemba, a senior deputy fellow at the Center for a New American Security, told Al Jazeera.

On Friday, G7 countries agreed to release 100 million barrels of diesel and crude oil from their emergency reserves under pressure from the White House. Meanwhile, the United States’ strategic oil reserve is at its lowest level since 1982.

“The United States is asking some (European Union) members to release ‘strategic reserves’ or face a possible U.S. ban on diesel exports, which will push France and Germany to do so, leading to a sharp decline in oil prices, as well as gasoline and diesel futures,” Patrick DeHaan, head of oil analysis at GasBuddy, said in an article on X.

Global pressures

Ukrainian attacks on Russian energy infrastructure have also driven up prices, particularly of diesel fuel. On Sunday, Ukraine’s Defense Ministry claimed to have disabled more than half of Russia’s oil refining capacity.

“The damage to Russian refineries – and the risk of new US sanctions against those processing Russian oil – makes the situation worse, but the underlying problem remains the volatility of flows from the Middle East, the greater difficulty in moving oil products and the reduction of buffers in place,” Ziemba added.

The latest strikes come amid ongoing attacks since Russia’s war with Ukraine began in 2022. In June, throughput at Russian refineries hit its lowest level in two decades, according to an analysis by the International Energy Agency (IEA). The analysis also found that diesel production has fallen by 30 percent over the past 18 months.

Trump also blamed rising prices on refining cuts in Democratic-led states, such as California, where two refineries closed in the past year. The shutdowns reduced the state’s refining capacity by 17 percent, creating supply deficits, according to an S&P Global analysis.

However, Trump’s efforts to shift blame to Democrats come ahead of a midterm election that could shape the balance of power in Washington. At the same time, most Americans seem to blame Trump for rising prices. A recent AP-NORC poll found that 65 percent of Americans blamed rising prices on Trump’s policies, while 61 percent said the U.S. economy was in worse shape than when Trump returned to office.