Trump warns gas prices could rise again: ‘We may have to send it up’

“When oil goes down, and it’s going to go down very rapidly and is already happening. We may have to send it up again. We may have to — you know what happens when we send it up,” Trump later added, referring to prices reacting to warfare. “But we don’t have to. But when the oil and gasoline go down, everything else goes down.”

Oil and gas prices have fluctuated as a result of the conflict in the Middle East, with markets reacting strongly to U.S. strikes on Iran and Tehran’s actions in the strait. On Wednesday, AAA reported the average price of gas was $4.08 per gallon.

The Trump administration has been under pressure to answer for the war’s effect on prices for Americans. Earlier this week, the president expressed his displeasure with Chevron and Exxon Mobil for making “too much” in profits during the second quarter of this year.

“They’ve got to give some of that back to the public, and they better cut the retail price, the consumer price. Too much money,” he said in the Oval Office on Monday. “You’re surprised I’m saying it? I’ll say it loud and clear. I’m not happy about it.”

QATAR SAYS DIRECT TALKS BETWEEN US AND IRAN HAVEN’T BEGUN YET

Gas prices fell during June and into early July as Washington and Tehran made progress on peace negotiations, agreeing to a 60-day preliminary ceasefire extension in mid-June. But the ceasefire has since fallen through, sending oil and gas prices upward again.

Trump has also voiced optimism about Iranian-Omani talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz through which one-fifth of the world’s oil supply flows. The president said if peace talks fall through, Iran will “get hit very hard.”