Trump warns US fuel retailers: Cut gasoline prices immediately or face 'big problems'

https://www.firstpost.com/business/trump-warns-us-fuel-retailers-cut-gasoline-prices-big-problems-14027607.html

147 points · 64 comments · view on lemmy.world

64 Comments

EndOfLine@lemmy.world · 70 pts · 36d (4 replies)

The retailers? Wouldn't that be the gas stations? Is he targeting the small business / franchisee while giving the oil companies a free pass?

grue@lemmy.world · 62 pts · 36d

First rule of being a bully is always prey on the weak, not the strong.

OwOarchist@pawb.social · 22 pts · 36d

The big oil companies already laughed in his face and told him 'shut your stupid mouth or we'll use our lobbyists to get you impeached'.

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 12 pts · 36d (1 reply)

The gas stations make no money on gas. Gas just brings in customers for the delicious hotdogs.

Drusas@fedia.io · 1 pts · 35d

Don't forget the cigarettes and booze.

return2ozma@lemmy.world · 41 pts · 36d (14 replies)

ShredderFeeder@shredderfood.net · 59 pts · 36d (5 replies)

So is he pro-free-market or not? Inquiring minds and all...

adespoton@lemmy.ca · 44 pts · 36d (1 reply)

He’s pro-Trump, and will do whatever it takes for Trump to win bigly.

ShredderFeeder@shredderfood.net · 26 pts · 36d

And THAT is what it's all about... Lowering gas prices because he knows that if gas is still over $4 / gal in November, Republicans lose big...

But Gas prices aren't coming down until the war he started is over, and even then, it may never come back to where it was...

return2ozma@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 36d (1 reply)

He's Pro Dumbass.

ShredderFeeder@shredderfood.net · 12 pts · 36d

That's interesting, so are his followers...

SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 36d

As if he would even understand the concept.

EndlessNightmare@reddthat.com · 37 pts · 36d (6 replies)

GOUGING The word is gouging. The number of times I see "gauging" used for this is too damn high!

It's one of those words that I see misused all the time, like rouge (instead of rogue) and loose (instead of lose).

FudgyMcTubbs@lemmy.world · 11 pts · 36d

POTUS is a dunce.

samus12345@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 35d

Rogue:

Rouge:

adespoton@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 35d

I suspect sometimes his typos are intentional.

He can turn around and say “I told you there’d be no gauging the gouging! Why didn’t you listen?”

Typotyper@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 36d

No one likes a loose goose.

CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d (1 reply)

I sometimes wonder if his stuff is being crafted like spam is crafted. Meaning all the idiotic spelling and grammar. I mean, all the random capitalization drives me nuts...

Sure, some of the reasons that spammers put in so many misspellings may be to try to get past spam filters, but that's not the only reason.

One is to filter out the smart people, basically. Spammers and conservatives have a very key thing in common - they rely on having stupid people fall for their nonsense:

https://josephsteinberg.com/why-scammers-make-spelling-and-grammar-mistakes/

Doomsider@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d

You don't have to wonder, AOTUS admitted staffers write them. Not just dictation either, they write in his prose.

lemonbun@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d

I'm confused why he cares about california, sounds like them threatening to not pay taxes could fuck his whole presidency

Zier@fedia.io · 34 pts · 36d (5 replies)

Trump promised $2/gal on 'day one' of his presidency. So where the fuck is our $2/gal? Liar!

REDACTED@infosec.pub · 6 pts · 36d (4 replies)

For Europeans, that's around $0.52 per litle

NottaLottaOcelot@lemmy.ca · 8 pts · 36d (2 replies)

In Canada, I remember prices like that around 1990 - I’m sure they will achieve that, as well as other prices from that era such as $0.50 hamburgers and $1 boxes of cereal

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 36d

Which we can eat in our $90,000 houses.

Ariselas@piefed.ca · 2 pts · 36d

I miss the the days I could fill my car with $20, but I probably still complained about the price

Treczoks@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 35d

Or about a quarter of the current price.

melsaskca@lemmy.ca · 28 pts · 36d (1 reply)

Gas prices cut. BOOM! Government subsidies given to oil companies to offset their loss. BOOM! End users pays for it all yet again.

A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.world · 10 pts · 35d

and theres no money to pay for it, so it will, of course, be paid via another massive, crippling blow to our already exploding debt.

because debt doesnt matter under republicans.

and debt doesnt matter to trump because he'll die before facing any of the consequences.

GutterRat42@lemmy.world · 21 pts · 35d (5 replies)

Sounds like communism to me.

Fribbizz@feddit.org · 4 pts · 35d (4 replies)

Fun Fact: what killed communism wasn't so much the ownership details of the means of production, but the fact they chose a command economy instead of a market economy. Planned or command economies are bad, no matter what political ideology is behind it.

Also: the way politicians world wide allowed conentration of mega corporations, I feel we are moving much more towards a command economy than a market economy.

lemonbun@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d

they also spent way too much money on war.

communist@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz · 1 pts · 34d (1 reply)

I don't even get this: china and the ussr, were the fastest growing economies ever. Both had some famines at the start and then solved their famine issue. They went from poorest countries in the world to superpowers absurdly quickly. This is a nonsense point. The reason they were so strict and ruthless is largely cia selection bias, and has nothing to do with their economic system, yes. But their means of production issues and therefore socialism is far from the problem.

GutterRat42@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d

I was being hyperbolic, Republicans are supposed to hate communism, but Trump keeps trying to dictate how business should operate

immutable@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 34d

Command economies using 1940s technology aren’t particularly good.

Back in the 70s the Cybersyn project was largely successful until the CIA deposed Allende to put Pinochet into power.

Heliumfart@sh.itjust.works · 21 pts · 36d (6 replies)

Gauging, is that how they say gouging in Yankee land, or is that a typo?

o0evillusion0o@sh.itjust.works · 15 pts · 36d (2 replies)

Neither. It's a retarded president.

chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 35d (1 reply)

Calling him retarded seems offensive to the differently able.

He's got soup brain.

Drusas@fedia.io · 2 pts · 35d

I'd agree, but he could be both cognitively disabled and a fascist piece of shit at the same time.

rumba@lemmy.zip · 9 pts · 36d (2 replies)

Guessing it's an auto-correct. Gauging is measuring/quantifying. Gouging was what they should have bee looking for.

SendMePhotos@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 33d (1 reply)

🐝

rumba@lemmy.zip · 3 pts · 32d

🐝n

bitjunkie@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 35d

What a fucking clown

MrSulu@lemmy.ml · 12 pts · 36d

So, they go out of business, monopolies buy them up, operated by price scalpers? Great plan....... For evil Nazi scumbags

redsand@infosec.pub · 11 pts · 36d

He's buying in again before the price spikes. Lebanon still dooms any Iran deal.

FreshParsnip@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 35d

I love vague threats like "big problems" or "consequences"

Rocketpoweredgorilla@lemmy.ca · 7 pts · 36d

He didn't give a shit a little while ago, but I guess his handlers realize that's not winning any votes and with the elections coming up....

But don't worry, he'll stop caring the second he wins again.

Anonymous_Leaker@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 36d
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Jaysyn@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 36d (1 reply)

Oil may be $68 a barrel right now, but the gas they are currently selling wasn't made from it.

But you'd have to not be a moron to understand that.

EDIT: Found the morons.

Auli@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 36d

Sure sure what a bullshit excuse. Why do prices rise instantly then. I have heard oh they Ned to charge the replacement cost. So which is it?

mx_smith@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 35d (5 replies)

I just drove across seven states in the US and the lowest gas prices were in the red states. I don’t know why that was unless there is some sort of state subsidy to keep Trump from looking stupid.

invertedspear@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 35d

A lot of it is tax based, but there are some other factors. CA has high fuel taxes, but they also have higher standards to ensure cleaner burning. AZ is a good place to see how much difference the cleaner burning fuel costs because Maricopa county (Phoenix area) requires gas stations to use CA standard fuel, but not the rest of the state. So compare gas in Phoenix to gas in Tucson.

There are a lot of other factors such as transportation costs, and infrastructure that keeps gas cheaper in the southern states where there are more refineries. Or coastal states where crude oil is more easily shipped to.

Armok_the_bunny@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 35d

I know at least one state has suspended the gas tax, which is a state subsidy in practice.

Duckingold@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 35d (1 reply)

Indiana suspended gas tax from April until July 7th. It will likely keep getting extended as long as Trump wants it. We're sub $3 in areas of the state.

We also cut school budgets so my kid won't have a full time PE, art, or music teacher next year. I'm sure it's unrelated.

mx_smith@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 34d

Good to know, thanks

BeardededSquidward@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 35d

Looking at a map of oil refineries in the USA, there is a lot all over the midwest which trend red. Given rail is pretty big in those areas it's cheaper to ship to markets.

SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca · 4 pts · 36d

Generalissimo Trumpo says sell gas for free.

tigermountain@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 34d

The fine art of the deal. The subtle maneuvering behind the scenes, the long term strategic thinking, the focus on the good of the country, the deft handling of challenges along the way. See the master do his work.

CADmonkey@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 35d

And I'm over here wondering why its still so cheap.

rottenmummy@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 36d

Do you think retailers need some freedom?

M0oP0o@mander.xyz · 2 pts · 34d

Yeah! He might do a thing?!

Maybe bleat about it. Maybe start another fight somewhere. Maybe he will send out goons to the stations.

Tetragrade@leminal.space · 1 pts · 34d

I just need to subsidize demand, I swear bro just one more subsidy man

altphoto@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 34d

Yeah, cmon!

ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 0 pts · 36d (2 replies)

Broken clock...

OwOarchist@pawb.social · 14 pts · 36d (1 reply)

Eh, the gas retailers (gas stations) are usually running on pretty thin margins when it comes to the fuel.

They make most of their money from selling other overpriced stuff in the attached store.

They do (usually) make some profit on fuel, yes ... but comparatively quite little most of the time. Because competition is stiff, and people will absolutely go to a different nearby station if the other one is even 1 cent cheaper.

For most of them, significantly cutting the cost of fuel would mean selling fuel at a loss. Of course, absolutely zero stations are going to do that just because of some vague (and probably toothless) threats from President Pedo.

mic_check_one_two@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 11 pts · 36d

Yeah, gas stations in competitive areas will even occasionally sell gas at a minor loss, to drive more traffic into the lobby where they make the vast bulk of their profit. Gas station pump prices are almost universally determined by the price they can get their fuel at. And that price isn’t set by the station, it is set by the refineries and distributors, who largely base their prices off of oil futures. And oil futures don’t give a fuck what current oil prices are. If gas prices are high right now, it’s because gas distributors expect the price of oil to go up again.