With oil and gasoline prices surging in the past week because of the Iran war, it has reportedly been a tense week inside the White House.
Politico reports that White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles has been pushing President Donald Trump’s advisers to find ideas for lowering gas prices and that some advisers “are getting screamed at to find some good news,” according to an energy industry executive.
“Folks are scrambling for announcements and messaging to counter the narrative,” the executive told Politico in a story posted Thursday.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in turn said that Politico “wrote sensationalist, unverified gossip for clicks.”
“Nobody is panicking,” Leavitt said in a statement, adding that Trump’s energy team has a plan to keep oil prices stable amid the war in Iran.
The administration is considering several ideas to bring down prices, Politico reported, including a temporary holiday on the gasoline tax, deploying the U.S. military to defend energy infrastructure in the Middle East and loosening sanctions against Russian oil shipments.
Oil prices surged again Friday to top $90 a barrel, their highest price since 2023. Gas prices are averaging $3.32 per gallon nationwide, and above $4 per gallon in the Portland and Vancouver areas.
Between the oil price increases and a weak update on the U.S. job market, stocks tumbled again Friday. The Associated Press reports that those two factors raised fears of stagflation, a stagnating economy combined with high inflation. It is very difficult to fix both of those economic situations at the same time.
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