Trump expects November fuel price 'tumble,' blames Iran

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(The Center Square) – As fuel prices remain on an incline across the nation, President Donald Trump said Wednesday that fuel prices will fall after the midterm election, blaming efforts by Iran to harm his popularity before Nov. 3. 

One federal agency projects a smaller decrease over a longer period, however.

According to AAA gas price data, the price for a gallon of regular gas in Illinois was $4.41 on Wednesday, more than 12 cents higher than a week ago and up nearly 97 cents one year to date.

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker blamed cost of living increases, such as grocery and fuel prices, on the policies of President Donald Trump and Republicans while in Dallas in protest of the GOP’s midterm national convention taking place concurrently.

“[The convention] can't paper over the fact that Republicans have done nothing to earn your vote. Donald Trump is hoping that a flashy primetime event will make you forget that well, his trade war is killing costs for families at the grocery store. His war in Iran is killing ranchers and farmers and their way of life,” Pritzker said.

Both state and national average prices jumped overnight Tuesday into Wednesday, following U.S. strikes on multiple Iranian fuel tankers, for which Iran retaliated with its own strikes on American vessels and military bases in the region.

Trump, speaking to the press at Joint Base Andrews before flying to the Dallas convention, had a different explanation as to the high fuel prices, and said they’d soon “tumble.”

“We control the straits and lots of other things. So, for a little while – I would say this, shortly, but right after the election, because [Iran] likes to have it that way, but right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward. They're going to be tumbling down and we'll get them down. I think for gasoline, we'll get them below $2 a gallon,” Trump said.

The U.S. Energy Information Agency released a report Wednesday noting that it expects constraints on Middle Eastern oil to remain through the end of the year, and full production capacity is not expected to reach pre-conflict levels until at least mid-next year.

The agency also projected that retail fuel prices wouldn’t reach $2 level the president claimed, but instead likely only about $3.35 per gallon for regular gasoline and diesel around $4.40 per gallon in 2027.

Patrick De Haan, a petroleum analyst for GasBuddy, said he doesn’t see any guarantee that a $2 per gallon average could happen so soon, even after the Nov. 3 election.

De Haan also said the nation is likely to see a historic high for the cost of diesel for this time of year in coming days, above $6 per gallon.

The cost of a gallon of diesel reached a national average of $5.94 Wednesday, with the Illinois average just 2 cents less.