(Article by Jack Davis republished from WesternJournal.com)
Trump was interviewed Saturday by Fox News host Jeanine Pirro.
During the wide-ranging interview, Pirro noted President Joe Biden’s comment in a recent town hall event that there was little he could or would do concerning rising gasoline prices.
"No, he doesn’t have any idea. Look, one of the things I was most proud of, our country became energy independent. We didn’t need the Middle East. We didn’t need Russia. We didn’t need anybody. We had our own — we had more than them," Trump said.
Trump said his administration intentionally made energy independence a goal.
"We were number one by far over Saudi Arabia and, you know this, and Russia. Number one by far. I had the pipelines going, Keystone XL pipeline. Amazingly, I ended the Russian pipeline. I was not good to Russia. I got along well with Russia. I got along well with Putin, but they weren’t happy with Trump. I can tell you that," he said.
"But Biden opened up this big massive pipeline all over Europe, but he closed down the XL, and I have to say, because you heard it a thousand times, more importantly, we’re energy independent no longer. I was so proud of that," Trump continued.
Trump said that gas prices on his watch hit $1.87 a gallon.
"And now, yesterday, they had in a certain section of California $7.70," Trump said.
"It’s always the lead. It’s going to follow, and it’s going to go a lot higher than that, and Biden sent people to go see Russia, Saudi Arabia and other members of OPEC that we need help, because we don’t have enough."
"Now when you talk about inflation, the biggest factor in my opinion is no energy. The trucks, the factories, everything, the deliveries, the planes, everything — it is so energy-based that the energy now is so expensive to get. We don’t have enough oil," he said.
Trump said he used the time when the nation’s Strategic Reserves of oil had been depleted to buy oil while the price was low.
"I never got credit. I don’t think anybody has ever mentioned it, but I bought 75 million barrels, I believe it was. Seventy-five million barrels, which is a massive order. It was good for two things. The prices got so low that it was hurting our energy jobs, and we bought it cheap as hell," he said.
Although Biden says the most he could do would be to trim prices by a few cents, Trump said that if he was in the White House, he could do a lot more.
"I could get that down within six months. I’ll bet you I could get it down to $2, $2.50," he said.
But Trump said with Biden at the helm, the price of gas is only going to rise.
"It’s going to be over $10," Trump said, indicating the Biden does not know how to lower prices.
Trump in March had predicted gas prices would soar. During an interview with Maria Bartiromo of Fox News, Trump said then that the price of gas could hit $5.
"Gas prices are going up at a far more rapid rate than anybody’s seen in a long time. We had gas prices very low, and yet we had more energy jobs than we’ve ever had," said Trump, speaking at a time when the average price of gas was $2.879 per gallon.
"[T]hey will be going up by $1, $2, $3, if you look at that, and it’s bigger than a tax increase to the consumer," he said
"You get a dollar increase in gasoline, that is bigger than a tax hike — than a big tax hike. So, it’s a terrible thing that is happening," Trump said then.
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