President Trump took credit for low gasoline prices on Friday, saying he used his “talent” for negotiating and well-placed phone calls to OPEC nations to bring oil prices lower.
“I’m very happy that a lot of people are paying a lot less, in many cases, than $2 for gasoline,” Trump said at a press conference in the Rose Garden. “Didn’t happen by luck, it happened through talent,” he added, gesturing to himself.
Trump explained that keeping gasoline prices lower is part of his administration’s efforts to reduce costs for Americans. Earlier this week, he called the lower fuel costs a second tax cut.
But some of his talks with Saudi Arabia ahead of re-imposing oil sanctions in November were initially referred to as disingenuous. Saudi Arabia did inject more oil into the market ahead of Trump’s sanctions, but only to find that the U.S. issued numerous waivers to countries to allow them to continue purchasing Iranian oil.
Now, OPEC is poised to cut production because the price of oil has fallen too low due to an oil glut, which could also harm U.S. oil drillers if the oil price goes too low. The average price of oil hovered around $45 per barrel this week.
“If you look back four months ago, the price of oil was $83 a barrel … it was heading toward $100,” Trump said on Friday. “You want to see problems, let that happen.”
But after he “made some phone calls” to OPEC nations, “all of a sudden it started coming down,” he added.
