In recent years, Donald Trump’s position on gas prices has been rather odd. Before returning to the presidency, for example, he took the unusual step of claiming, more than once, that he took steps to deliberately raise gas prices in order to help oil industry profits.

Even after his second term began, and prices at the pump climbed, the Republican’s line did not improve. As recently as last month, Trump briefly tried to convince consumers that they should be glad they’re paying more.

Early Wednesday morning, however, the president adopted a very different position, writing on his social media platform:

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! In other words, customers are being “gouged.” I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this. Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing!

To be sure, prices that spiked during the war in Iran have subsided, but the national average for price per gallon hasn’t fallen as quickly as the recent drop in U.S. crude prices.

This has to be frustrating for the White House, since Trump promised the public that there would be a sharp and immediate improvement in gas prices after combat operations came to an end in the Middle East. That said, the administration hasn’t presented any evidence of illegal price gouging, and it was clear even when the president was extending these assurances that it would take time for consumers to start benefiting, even after the war pressures eased.

But there was one part of the Republican’s missive that stood out for me: “I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this.”

The trouble is, the Justice Department isn’t who Trump should have contacted.

In 2021, Joe Biden also expressed concerns about oil and gas companies engaging in “potentially illegal conduct,” pushing gasoline prices higher even as industry costs declined. But the Democratic president didn’t contact Main Justice; Biden instead asked Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan to open an investigation.

Why? Because it’s the FTC, not the Justice Department, that conducts antitrust investigations like these.

In other words, Biden raised the same issue as Trump, but he contacted the proper federal agency because he understood how the federal government works.

The post As Trump targets alleged price gouging at the pump, his plan flubs a key detail appeared first on MS NOW.

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