President Donald Trump on Monday argued that refinery disruptions in Russia and the United States, rather than the ongoing war with Iran, are now the primary reason gasoline prices remain elevated, pointing specifically to Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries and refinery closures in California. Trump said oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz have recovered enough that the waterway is no longer the main factor driving gasoline prices, while disruptions to refining capacity have created a separate supply problem.
“What’s driving up Gasoline is no longer the Strait of Hormuz, because Record Numbers of Barrels are coming out now on an almost daily basis, but the word, ‘Refineries,’ where Russia’s are being blown up by Ukraine, and where ours are being closed up, in Blue States, like California, by the Dumocrats,” Trump wrote Monday on Truth Social. Ukraine has increasingly targeted Russian energy infrastructure, with the attacks hitting refineries and reducing Russia’s ability to produce refined petroleum products. Ukraine’s Defense Ministry said Sunday that its strikes had disabled more than half of Russia’s oil-refining capacity, a claim that could not be independently verified.
