# How can trump lower gas prices? **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [January 28, 2025, 1:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528 "2025-01-28T13:15:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/21 "2025-01-28T20:42:00Z")
I assumed the right will be putting them up if gas prices go up. Why wouldn’t they? 😉 ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/22 "2025-01-28T20:59:36Z")
I knew what you meant. Sorta tied in with the various threads on how the D’s might possibly pierce the RW propaganda bubble, this is a concrete actually doable idea. Net of course of the fact that every sticker stuck to a gas pump is an act of illegal vandalism. Which illegality sure didn’t stop the RW vandals with their BS Biden stickers. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/23 "2025-01-28T21:07:50Z")
From the BBC: > **President Donald Trump has said he will ask Saudi Arabia and other Opec nations to “bring down the cost of oil” and doubled-down on his threat to use tariffs.** ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/24 "2025-01-28T21:18:31Z")
> [@bump](#): > > chicken meat, which comes from chickens from six to 1.5 years old, with most of them on the younger side of that at 18 weeks Didn’t realise that you Americans consumed such aged birds. Over here commercial broilers are processed by around 6 weeks of age and even free range are slaughtered by 8 weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/25 "2025-01-28T21:23:03Z")
> [@Monty](#): > > I thought the key indicator was toilet paper or paper towels. That is the new metric for pandemic threshold. At $20 for a roll of generic, barely absorbent paper towels we have a certified global emergency. > [@bump](#): > > And with oil, most of what the President could do directly would likely increase prices, not lower them. At the very best, he can lean on other countries to increase supply in hopes that’ll change prices. The President can authorize the release of petroleum from the [Strategic Petroleum Reserve](https://www.energy.gov/ceser/strategic-petroleum-reserve); however, the intent of this reserve is to prevent price shocks or crippling of military response and critical industries from disruptions in the foreign oil supply. It would not be practical, much less sensible, to use this to fight long term inflation in the domestic price of oil. > [@bob\_2](#): > > From the BBC: > > > **President Donald Trump has said he will ask Saudi Arabia and other Opec nations to “bring down the cost of oil” and doubled-down on his threat to use tariffs.** \Oh, that will work.\ Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/26 "2025-01-28T21:31:18Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > President Donald Trump has said he will ask Saudi Arabia and other Opec nations to “bring down the cost of oil” and doubled-down on his threat to use tariffs. Given that oil pretty much the only thing Saudi Arabia sells us and so the only thing he can put a tarriff on he is effectively saying “Reduce the price of the oil you sell us or I will raise the price of the oil you sell us.” ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/27 "2025-01-28T21:31:39Z")
So…the first step in any cost negotiation is to ask for a lower price. I’m going to write that on actual paper because what if the internet crashes. I could never remember that. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/28 "2025-01-28T21:32:48Z")
> [@bob\_2](#): > > President Donald Trump has said he will ask Saudi Arabia and other Opec nations to “bring down the cost of oil” and doubled-down on his threat to use tariffs. He wants to lower the price of oil by … raising the price of oil? I really feel like I should be shocked by the stupidity, there, but honestly, I’m not. ---
**Author:** ![Horatius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/horatius/32/3572_2.png) [@Horatius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatius)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/29 "2025-01-28T21:34:50Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > The President can authorize the release of petroleum from the [Strategic Petroleum Reserve](https://www.energy.gov/ceser/strategic-petroleum-reserve); And when he does that, let’s remember to remind everyone that it was Biden who refilled it, so that it would be available for Trump to use. [https://www.spglobal.com/commodity-insights/en/news-research/latest-news/crude-oil/110824-biden-administration-completes-final-strategic-petroleum-reserve-refill-purchase](https://www.spglobal.com/commodity-insights/en/news-research/latest-news/crude-oil/110824-biden-administration-completes-final-strategic-petroleum-reserve-refill-purchase) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/30 "2025-01-28T21:35:23Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > The President can authorize the release of petroleum from the [Strategic Petroleum Reserve](https://www.energy.gov/ceser/strategic-petroleum-reserve); however, the intent of this reserve is to prevent price shocks or crippling of military response and critical industries from disruptions in the foreign oil supply. It would not be practical, much less sensible, to use this to fight long term inflation in the domestic price of oil. And approve more drilling. But so far, the tariffs will INCREASE the cost of gas. > [@Horatius](#): > > He wants to lower the price of oil by … raising the price of oil? > > I really feel like I should be shocked by the stupidity, there, but honestly, I’m not. Tariffs and economics are hard things to understand. ---
**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/31 "2025-01-28T21:43:56Z")
I thought we were going to be drilling baby drilling? Why would we need to ask others to lower the cost of oil? Aren’t we on the path to being completely self-sufficient? ---
**Author:** ![gnoitall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/bb73d2/32.png) [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 9:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/32 "2025-01-28T21:47:35Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > True believers have very short and selective memories. trump will tell the MAGAts he will bully [something] to lower gas prices. Prices won’t actually move despite a bunch of loud public bullying. He will then tell the MAGAts his bullying has led directly to drastically lowered gas prices. All the propaganda outlets will tell everyone he’s lowered gas prices. The MAGA public will _believe_ gas prices are indeed lower. This playbook has seen some prior art. > For the moment he had shut his ears to the remoter noises and was listening to the stuff that streamed out of the telescreen. **It appeared that there had even been demonstrations to thank Big Brother for raising the chocolate ration to twenty grammes a week. And only yesterday, he reflected, it had been announced that the ration was to be REDUCED to twenty grammes a week.** Was it possible that they could swallow that, after only twenty-four hours? Yes, they swallowed it. - _Nineteen Eighty-Four_, George Orwell. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 28, 2025, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/33 "2025-01-28T21:59:31Z")
> [@Horatius](#): > > He wants to lower the price of oil by … raising the price of oil? “If you guys don’t get me what I want, I’m going to shoot myself in the foot and keep shooting until you change your mind.” This is the kind of logic that made [Dewey Crowe the criminal mastermind of Southern Kentucky](https://youtu.be/sbDgZedBAc4?si=-LGzFMiU5visBPtW). Stranger ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/34 "2025-01-29T00:41:13Z")
Yes Trump (with the agreement of Congress) can lower gas prices: remove the 18.4 cent/gallon federal gas tax. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/35 "2025-01-29T00:46:39Z")
> [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](#): > > His worshippers don’t care that he breaks every single campaign promise. If he fucks up the country and makes life miserable for them, they have the consolation that it’s miserable for the libtards, too. Actually what will happen is Trump will blame others, and they’ll believe that. ---
**Author:** ![SunUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SunUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SunUp)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/36 "2025-01-29T01:07:45Z")
Another reason why gas prices are something people use to gauge the economy is the simple reason that they are shown - in large, easily read numbers - every few miles along every major thoroughfare in the country. Kinda hard for gas prices to avoid the public consciousness as long as that is the case. ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/37 "2025-01-29T01:14:13Z")
And of course MAGA types will think the roads will naturally maintain themselves with no federal gas tax. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/38 "2025-01-29T01:38:48Z")
MAGA thinking: > We don’t need roads. We’re not drivers. We’re _travelers_. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 2:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/39 "2025-01-29T14:10:00Z")
> [@thorny\_locust](#): > > From six _weeks_, presumably? Yeah, my head got ahead of my fingers there. Sorry! > [@thorny\_locust](#): > > I’ve had very little luck pointing out to my neighbor that a pipeline from Canada or northern USA to Texas isn’t going to lower gas prices in the USA because it’ll just go overseas. It’s not that he doesn’t believe me that that’s where it’s going – it’s just that he’s had it drummed into his head so hard that it’ll lower gas prices here that he’s sure that somehow it will. He’s not _entirely_ wrong, but it goes back to what I pointed out upthread. He doesn’t understand how commodity prices work. I mean, if the pipelines let Canadian oil get to the refineries and ports in Texas, that will increase overall supply, and decrease the costs to get that oil processed and shipped, thereby dropping prices some because the overall market now has more oil getting into it faster than before. But it’s not like some sort of magic effect where gas is going to drop thirty cents a gallon as a result. > [@BobLibDem](#): > > Equally galling is this asinine concept of “energy independence”. The US has for a very long time exported oil and at the same time imported oil. We do so because different refineries use different grades of oil and we can’t drill enough of each one to satisfy demand domestically. I always understood it to be a net thing, and furthermore, we’ve largely achieved it. And you’re absolutely right- the fact that we import and export oil isn’t a energy dependence thing, it’s a cost thing. US oil companies can basically export light sweet crude for more than they can import lesser foreign grades and refine it here. So a win-win for everyone involved. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528/40 "2025-01-29T14:23:27Z")
> [@bump](#): > > I mean, if the pipelines let Canadian oil get to the refineries and ports in Texas, that will increase overall supply, and decrease the costs to get that oil processed and shipped, thereby dropping prices some because the overall market now has more oil getting into it faster than before. If nobody else cuts production to keep prices up, yes. But as you say, not likely to be a drastic effect at the gas pump. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-can-trump-lower-gas-prices/1013528.md?page=3)