Trump Says He Ordered DOJ to Target Oil Companies Over High Gas Prices

The U.S. lifted its naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz last week, but the returning commercial trade has not been a return to normal—and Americans are still feeling it at the gas pump.

In a Truth Social post addressing the discrepancy, Donald Trump announced late Tuesday that he had directed the Department of Justice to investigate oil companies, accusing them of “gouging” customers based on the persisting inflated prices.

“The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil,” Trump posted, just after midnight. “Those prices are dropping like a rock! In other words, customers are being ‘gouged.’

“I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this. Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing!” he added.

While crude oil and gas prices have both fallen since Iran and the U.S. signed a tentative peace deal last week, the drop in gas prices has been relatively minimal. Crude was down over 5 percent between June 18 and June 24, but gas was down by half of that—2.5 percent—in the same period, according to data from the AAA gasoline price tracker.

Trump had promised throughout the war that gas prices would plummet “like a rock” once the violence concluded, but that has clearly not been the case, much to the chagrin of his vulnerable Republican allies in Congress, who will have to rationalize the dampened economy to voters come November. Trump and his team have also promised that Americans could expect lower gas prices than the average from even before the war began—around $2.98 per gallon. At the time of publication, the cost of gas is $3.92 per gallon across the country, though some areas in California, such as San Luis Obispo, are still seeing prices around $5.78 per gallon, according to the AAA tracker.

Over the last month, crude oil prices have dropped by 27 percent while gas prices were down by just 13 percent, reported Yahoo Finance.

After multiple artists dropped out of President Donald Trump’s Freedom 250 Independence Day celebrations, the administration has settled on a replacement: FBI Director Kash Patel’s girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins.

“What a great honor to be a part of the 250th birthday of this great nation,” Wilkins posted on X Tuesday.

The event was supposed to have a series of concerts, with headliners announced in late May. Musicians immediately started dropping out, saying they didn’t know that the event would be politicized.

Now, instead of having performers Martina McBride, Young MC, Milli Vanilli, The Commodores, Morris Day & the Time, and Bret Michaels, the event will feature Wilkins—a country singer with 5,863 monthly listeners on Spotify.

On X, Wilkins fired back at critics questioning her dubious booking, saying, “I was invited to sing this anthem on my own accord, as I have been many other places throughout my career.”

Patel has a track record of inappropriately using government resources in his relationship with Wilkins, including using a SWAT team as her bodyguards and jet-setting in a government plane to go see her. Wilkins denies that she’s gotten special privileges, and is suing MS NOW for defamation alleging that she abused federal resources.

A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that President Trump can resume fast-tracking deportations, in a 2–1 ruling. While a lower court struck the program down in August, this ruling allows the Trump administration to deport potentially millions of people without offering them immigration hearings.

Judge Justin R. Walker and Judge Neomi Rao, two Trump appointees, ruled in Trump’s favor, while Judge Robert L. Wilkins, an Obama appointee, dissented. The Trump appointees argued that it was within the executive’s jurisdiction to decide which migrants to fast-track to deportation and that the Department of Homeland Security was not required to inform migrants that they could avoid an accelerated deportation if they could offer proof of residency for at least two years.

“It is not a requirement that the government explain how the individual might prevail,” Walker wrote.

Wilkins noted in his dissent that the expedited removal process was usually reserved for people detained immediately at the U.S. borders, rather than immigrants who’d been in the country for some time.

“A procedure that can result in persons being deported pursuant to the expedited removal statute without even being asked how long they have been in the country might satisfy due process for persons encountered at the border, but it is woefully inadequate for persons encountered in the interior of the country,” Wilkins wrote.

This decision is a victory for the mass deportation agenda animating White House adviser Stephen Miller. The DHS celebrated the ruling, claiming that it had “vindicated” Trump, according to The New York Times.

Allies of New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani swept the region’s Democratic House primaries Tuesday evening, the latest example of liberal-minded voters shifting their preferences.

And after Brad Lander, Darializa Avila Chevalier, and Claire Valdez won—all of whom have been vocal critics of Israel’s genocide in Gaza—the biggest loser seemed to be MAGA world, which was left befuddled and irate that voters had turned away from candidates espousing the historically pro-Israel party line.

Appearing on Fox News, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller complained that the “Democrat Party has abandoned [centrism] and instead adopted this radical, revolutionary, and in many cases, violent ideology that wants to tear America down, and destroy everything that we know and love, from top to bottom.”

Miller further used the trio’s massive win Tuesday to urge Democrats to vote MAGA in the midterm elections, claiming that progressive politics—which he said involved hating America, God, family, and gender—would be the country’s “death knell.”

Far-right influencer Laura Loomer was similarly disgusted by the political development, insisting that the Big Apple’s mayor is an Islamic militant and that Donald Trump needs to do something about it.

“I remember when Trump, who I love, said Mamdani isn’t a jihadi. I was shocked,” Loomer wrote on X late Tuesday, reacting to the race. “Mamdani is a jihadi and this growing threat of Islamic jihad and pro-Islamic terror candidates getting elected in America is a national crisis. It needs to be addressed by the Trump administration. Tonight should prove it to everyone.”

Meghan McCain, a conservative TV personality and daughter of former Arizona Senator John McCain, also added her two cents, writing directly to Jewish Americans via social media.

“To my beautiful Jewish friends in America. We love you. You are not alone. We are just as freaked out as you are and see with clear eyes exactly what is happening,” McCain wrote.

Lander, one of the three Mamdani-backed candidates who cruised to victory Tuesday night, is Jewish.

President Donald Trump had a meltdown Tuesday after a slate of Democratic Socialist candidates endorsed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani won their primary elections.

“America the Beautiful will NEVER be a Communist Country!!!” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.

“Many Communists running in badly failing Blue States. The votes seem to have them doing quite well against each other,” Trump wrote in another post. “The bad news is that history has conclusively shown that the downtrodden States that they will soon be running will ONLY GET WORSE.”

Trump also lashed out at Democratic Representative Dan Goldman, who lost his seat to former city Comptroller Brad Lander, an ally of Mamdani.

“Weak and pathetic Congressman Dan Goldman just lost, BIG! I guess people didn’t like him illegally targeting President TRUMP. In any event, this jerk is finally GONE!” Trump wrote.

Representative Adriano Espaillat, the 71-year-old leader of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, was defeated by Darializa Avila Chevalier, a 32-year-old democratic socialist who previously organized pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University. And Assemblymember Claire Valdez, another member of Democratic Socialists of America, triumphed over the handpicked successor of outgoing Representative Nydia Velazquez.

“Solidarity forever, abolish ICE, free Palestine, organize your union, and join DSA!” Valdez said at the end of her victory speech.