President Trump pressures retailers to lower gas prices nationwide
President Donald Trump urged gas retailers to lower prices and warned of the impact of falling oil prices and heightened volatility from tensions with Iran.
President Donald Trump wants the price you pay at the pump to go down.
Earlier this month, the national average price of gasoline fell to $3.99 a gallon, the first time fuel prices have fallen below $4 since March 30, one month after the United States and Israel began their war with Iran.
With tens of millions of Americans planning to hit the road this Fourth of July weekend, and with gas prices and affordability remaining a major concern for Republicans in the upcoming midterm elections, President Trump wants gas prices to come down quickly.
“Gasoline retailers should lower their prices immediately!” President Trump declared on Truth Social on June 29. “It’s way too high considering oil prices are going south right now at $68 a barrel.”
“There will be no metering. This is completely illegal. If retailers don’t do this, we’re in big trouble! Start targeting numbers around $2.50 per gallon,” Trump wrote.
Trump administration says it is ‘watching’ gas prices
President Trump said last week that he was asking the Justice Department to investigate oil companies because gas prices weren’t falling enough.
On Tuesday, June 30, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urged gasoline retailers to lower prices.
“I would encourage all gasoline retailers. Some are owned by big oil companies, some are independent retailers, some are international convenience chains,” Bessent said in an interview on Fox News Channel. “We’re watching over them, so we want to encourage them to be good actors, especially on the 250th anniversary.”
Gasoline prices have fallen but are still higher than a year ago
Patrick de Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, wrote on X on June 30 that Trump “makes a fair point about retail prices.”
That’s because gas retailer profit margins are rising, he said, citing data from energy data firm OPIS, which showed retailer profit margins in June were up from 11.7% in June 2025 (12.4%) and up from 11.7% in June 2025. This comes after the retailer’s profit margins fell below 2025 in the past three months (March-May 2026) compared to a year ago, according to OPIS data. But De Haan said he doesn’t think retailers are eating away. consumer. Nationwide, 39 states have average gas prices below $4 a gallon, according to GasBuddy data. And de Haan said prices are lower in most states (46 out of 50) than they were last week.
Oil and gas prices are related, but more complex than that.
“Many Americans mistakenly believe that because oil is X, gas must be Y,” de Haan told USA TODAY. “The complexities that occur at the refining level were not taken into account, and this time Ukraine was busy attacking Russian refineries.”
Other factors include the cost of summer gasoline, which is more expensive to produce, and a slight decline in refinery output due to a heat dome across much of the United States.
In any case, gas prices are falling faster than in 2022. The move coincided with the end of coronavirus restrictions and U.S. and European Union sanctions that blocked Russia’s oil sales after the country’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Prices are actually falling a little faster than they were in 2022. We know things are rarely the same, but this is a pretty good comparison,” de Haan said.
Americans will now spend $300 million more on gas than they did 40 days ago, but $225 million more than they did a year ago, De Haan wrote on X.
Oil prices have risen slightly in recent days after recently falling to near pre-war levels. The price of international benchmark Brent crude oil was $73 per barrel on June 30, while the price of US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude was $70.
On February 27, the day before the start of the US-Israel war against Iran, Brent closed at $72.48 per barrel and WTI at $67.02.
Contributed by: Reuters
Mike Snyder is a national trends news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, and X, or email him at: mike snyder & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.
