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Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly shot his successor, Joe Biden, during an interview with conservative broadcaster Hugh Hewitt. Among them: an attack on Biden for rising gasoline prices.
Here is an exchange of December 8 interview:
Asset: “Energy prices – we were independent of energy, and now we are going to beg:” OPEC, please send us oil, we have no oil, please us send oil â€. California just hit $ 7, $ 7.75 in parts of California. Can you believe it? “
Hewitt: “I can not.”
Asset: “It was $ 1.86 when I left.”
We have already written that gas prices are currently at their highest levels since 2014, and that the year-over-year increase is among the highest in at least 30 years.
However, Trump is wrong to say that the price per gallon “was $ 1.86 when I left” the White House. (Trump’s office did not respond to a request for this article.)
We turned to pricing data collected by the federal government Energy information administration. The national average price of a gallon of gasoline for the week of Jan. 18, 2021 was $ 2.38, about 28% more than Trump had said.
The only time the national average gasoline price hit $ 1.86 under Trump was in March 2020, at the very onset of the pandemic, when demand crunched due to lockdowns and business closures. .
If Trump intended to refer to California, which he had mentioned in his previous sentence, he would be even further. The state has some of the highest prices in the country. That week, the average price in California was $ 3.21, 73% more than Trump said. During Biden’s tenure, the average weekly price in California hit around $ 4.55, but nowhere near $ 7.
In Texas, which typically has among the lowest gas prices, the average price that week was just under $ 2.10; in houston, it was $ 2.06.
“In no city or state in the United States was the average price of gasoline $ 1.86 per gallon on January 20, 2021,” said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.
De Haan added that in some states there were likely individual stations selling gasoline for $ 1.86 a gallon on that date, but there were also stations in Orlando, Florida at $ 5.95. the gallon. So at best, Trump would indulge in extreme selection by highlighting an unrepresentative price as typical as he stepped out of the White House.
And one final reminder: In general, a president, be it Trump or Biden, has limited control over weekly and monthly changes in gasoline prices. In the short term, gas prices depend mainly on global supply and demand.
Under the two presidents, the coronavirus pandemic has played a major role. The lowest prices under Trump came during the fall in demand, while the higher prices under Biden were shaped by rising demand during the economic recovery.
Our decision
Trump said gasoline prices were $ 1.86 a gallon when he left office.
The national average price of gasoline when Trump left the White House was actually $ 2.38, about 28% higher than what Trump said.
We evaluate the statement as false.
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