Trump blames Democrats and Ukraine for high gasoline prices in the U.S.

President Donald Trump tried on Monday to shift the blame for high gasoline prices in the U.S. to the Democrats and to Ukraine’s attacks on Russian refineries, as he faces energy price pressure driven by the war with Iran, as Reuters reports.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote that “what is driving Gasoline up is no longer the Strait of Hormuz, because Record Numbers of Barrels are now coming out almost every day, but the word, ‘Refineries,’ where Russia’s are being destroyed by Ukraine, and where ours are being shut down, in Blue States, like California, by the Democrats.”

Energy prices have risen significantly since Iran cut off access to the Strait of Hormuz, the sea corridor through which a fifth of the world’s oil supplies normally pass. Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s energy infrastructure have also pushed prices up, especially those of oil (diesel).

According to Reuters, gasoline prices in the U.S. have risen by more than 40 per cent over the past year, while the price of diesel reached a record $6.53 per gallon a week ago, according to AAA data. The issue carries political weight in the U.S., where the Trump administration and Republican candidates face pressure to lower fuel costs ahead of the November midterm elections, while Trump’s economic approval remains under pressure.

This is not the first time Trump has blamed Kyiv for the fuel crisis — in mid-September he called on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to stop attacks on Russia’s energy industry, arguing that Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian refineries were raising oil prices in the U.S.