Trump blames Democrats and Ukraine — not his Iran war — for America's soaring fuel prices

Under pressure over fuel prices driven up by the war in Iran, US President Donald Trump tried on Monday to shift the blame — to the Democrats, and to Ukraine. "What's driving up Gasoline is no longer the Strait of Hormuz, because Record Numbers of Barrels are coming out now on an almost daily basis, but the word, 'Refineries,' where Russia's are being blown up by Ukraine, and where ours are being closed up, in Blue States, like California, by the Dumocrats," Trump wrote on Truth Social. The numbers tell their own story. On Monday, the average cost of a gallon of unleaded fuel in the US was more than $4.36, according to AAA — down from the summer high of $4.47, but still more than a dollar higher than last year's summer average. Diesel was worse: $6.32 a gallon on Monday morning, after hitting a record $6.5276 in September. Energy prices spiked after Iran cut access to the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway that normally carries a fifth of the world's oil supplies. Ukraine's attacks on Russia's energy infrastructure drove prices higher still, particularly for diesel — and Russia responded with a ban on its own diesel exports, squeezing global supply further. The administration is rattled. Trump and his top aides have been, in Reuters' words, 'hyper-focused' on elevated gas prices for months, as Iran resists the president's military and economic campaigns. On Monday morning, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins told Fox News that Trump would make an 'announcement' on the subject during a trip to Nebraska in the evening; reports indicate he plans to order the Treasury Department to review taxes on diesel and expand the availability of tax-exempt fuels for agriculture and transport. A parallel fight is brewing over a proposed ban on diesel exports. Trump has declared his support for one; Representative Tim Burchett has tabled a bill to that effect, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senator Dan Sullivan back a temporary pause. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum oppose it as a bad idea that would backfire. Separately, UN Ambassador Mike Waltz has joined the administration chorus blaming the Russia-Ukraine war — not the Iran war — for the diesel crisis. Markets are unconvinced the pain is ending: London executives warned bottlenecks and refinery cuts could keep prices high into next year, and the G7 agreed on Friday to release 100 million barrels from emergency reserves. The war with Iran is Trump's war, and it was that war that choked the Hormuz chokepoint. Now the president says Hormuz is yesterday's problem, and the guilty parties are Kyiv and California. The pumps do not care who is blamed. It is the drivers paying $4.36 a gallon whom the blame is supposed to fool — and they can do the arithmetic themselves.