Author Stephen King called out President Donald Trump on Sunday for high gas prices that Americans cannot afford because of the Iran war, as record fuel costs keep the pressure on households.
‘Lots of Folks Can’t’ Afford
“I just paid $5.32/gallon for hi-test this morning…and I can afford it. Lots of folks can’t,” King wrote in a post on X.
Regular gasoline averaged $4.3697 per gallon on Sunday, up from $4.1474 a month ago and $3.1402 a year ago, according to AAA. Diesel averaged $6.3434 on Sunday, compared with $5.8500 a month ago and $3.6951 a year ago.
On Friday, Iran’s top security official, Mohsen Rezaei, pushed back against Trump’s claim that Tehran is close to surrendering, as the Pentagon sends 10,000 more troops to the Middle East.
Trump Drops Export Ban Talk
Trump said Saturday the U.S. will not ban diesel exports, after threatening restrictions last month.
In a Truth Social post, he said Europe “has just agreed to release a massive amount of their heavily stocked Diesel Oil,” adding that “the process will begin immediately.”
The G7 agreed to release 100 million barrels of oil and fuel from emergency stocks, with a front-loaded diesel release over 20 days and the rest spread over four months.
Trump has said that oil prices will fall after the midterm elections in November.
Energy Drove August Inflation
Energy was the biggest source of price pressure in the latest personal consumption expenditures report, with energy goods and services up 2.3% in August and gasoline and other energy goods up 4.4%.
Headline PCE rose 0.3% month over month, below the 0.4% forecast, and held at 3.4% annually, under the 3.7% consensus. Core PCE rose 0.2%, with the annual rate at 3.0%.
At the time of writing, Brent crude was down 0.91% at $101.67 a barrel, while WTI futures were down 0.72% at $90.45.
Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.
Photo Courtesy: George Koroneos on Shutterstock.com
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