From William Weir...Author, Journalist, Minister

Briefly. Gas prices got as low as $1.87 in February 2016 under Obama, holding steady around $2.30 until Trump took office. From there they rose steadily until October 2018, reaching a peak of almost $3.00. As the economy continued to flounder under Trump (2018 saw the worst year for the stock market since the 2008 housing crisis; the Fed lowered interest rates in 2019 for the first time since Bush was President to try to prevent a recession), prices fell slightly, holding around $2.65 until the pandemic.

Once Trump mishandled the pandemic and the country began shutting down, demand for fuel dropped and prices fell, reaching $1.93 in April 2020—almost as low as a year before Trump took office. Trump then stated that low gas prices (during a financial crisis) was bad for America. He pushed OPEC into a two year deal to slash production to drive up prices. (This is probably the only thing in his failed Presidency that he successfully accomplished.) Gas prices began to rise immediately and continued to rise until Biden took office.

Once Biden reopened the country, people started driving normally again and the global oil shortage Trump created drove prices up even faster. Prices continued to climb until Trump’s OPEC deal ended in May 2022, peaking at just over $5.00 in June. Then normal production resumed and prices began to fall again. Currently prices are hovering around $3.00 a gallon, about where they were at the end of 2018—the last time the economy was considered reasonably stable under Trump.

So long story short, Trump’s failed economy did lead to gas prices dipping before reaching a record high because of his OPEC deal, but thanks in part to record high domestic oil production under Biden, gas prices are back in line with where they were before the “Trump Slump” despite global inflation driving prices up on almost everything else.

So let’s adjust the numbers for global inflation. The $2.30 under Obama in 2016 would be $2.97 in today’s dollars. That $3.00 under Trump in 2018 would be $3.71 in today’s dollars. The $2.65 we averaged in 2019 would be $3.22 in today’s dollars. So adjusting for inflation, gas prices now under Biden are lower than they were before the pandemic under Trump, and only slightly higher than they were in the final year of Obama’s Presidency.

You’d think the Biden Administration would have realized by now that enriching the Iranian regime is a dangerous mistake. You’d be wrong. Relaxed U.S. enforcement of oil sanctions continued through October, refilling Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s coffers even after the Oct. 7 slaughter and the more than 40 attacks on U.S. troops by Iran’s proxies in the weeks since.
Iran exported nearly 1.4 million barrels of oil per day in October, sustaining its average for 2023. This is up 80% from the 775,000 barrels per day Iran averaged under the Trump Administration’s “maximum pressure” strategy, according to United Against Nuclear Iran, the group of former U.S. Ambassador Mark Wallace and Sen. Joe Lieberman, whose Tanker Tracker generates the best public data we have.

The Iranian surge in oil exports since President Biden took over has brought Iran an additional $32 billion to $35 billion, according to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
The calculations are tricky, but the cause of the Iranian windfall is clear: As part of Mr. Biden’s quiet diplomacy with Iran, the U.S. has curtailed sanctions enforcement.
Customers and middlemen have concluded the risk is low and the discount on Iran’s oil is too good to pass up.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/biden-administration-iran-oil-hamas-israel-gaza-df192c53

Who thinks it would be a good idea to give China, Russia or Iran the authority to block energy, food, and mineral production on United States land? No one in their right mind, that’s for sure, but naturally the Biden administration tried.
Fortunately, they failed, but this is a cautionary tale of why we must constantly remain vigilant and make sure the Biden administration isn’t abusing its authority in its war on domestic energy production.
https://thehill.com/opinion/congress-blog/4432240-failed-biden-proposal-would-have-allowed-our-enemies-to-control-our-land-use/

From William Weir...Author, Journalist, Minister

Briefly. Gas prices got as low as $1.87 in February 2016 under Obama, holding steady around $2.30 until Trump took office. From there they rose steadily until October 2018, reaching a peak of almost $3.00. As the economy continued to flounder under Trump (2018 saw the worst year for the stock market since the 2008 housing crisis; the Fed lowered interest rates in 2019 for the first time since Bush was President to try to prevent a recession), prices fell slightly, holding around $2.65 until the pandemic.

Once Trump mishandled the pandemic and the country began shutting down, demand for fuel dropped and prices fell, reaching $1.93 in April 2020—almost as low as a year before Trump took office. Trump then stated that low gas prices (during a financial crisis) was bad for America. He pushed OPEC into a two year deal to slash production to drive up prices. (This is probably the only thing in his failed Presidency that he successfully accomplished.) Gas prices began to rise immediately and continued to rise until Biden took office.

Once Biden reopened the country, people started driving normally again and the global oil shortage Trump created drove prices up even faster. Prices continued to climb until Trump’s OPEC deal ended in May 2022, peaking at just over $5.00 in June. Then normal production resumed and prices began to fall again. Currently prices are hovering around $3.00 a gallon, about where they were at the end of 2018—the last time the economy was considered reasonably stable under Trump.

So long story short, Trump’s failed economy did lead to gas prices dipping before reaching a record high because of his OPEC deal, but thanks in part to record high domestic oil production under Biden, gas prices are back in line with where they were before the “Trump Slump” despite global inflation driving prices up on almost everything else.

So let’s adjust the numbers for global inflation. The $2.30 under Obama in 2016 would be $2.97 in today’s dollars. That $3.00 under Trump in 2018 would be $3.71 in today’s dollars. The $2.65 we averaged in 2019 would be $3.22 in today’s dollars. So adjusting for inflation, gas prices now under Biden are lower than they were before the pandemic under Trump, and only slightly higher than they were in the final year of Obama’s Presidency.