On Tuesday, a Fox News host pulled no punches while reporting on a series of crises that have foiled President Donald Trump’s attempts to bring down the cost of fuel. Simply put, said longtime Fox financial analyst Stuart Varney, “The news on energy is not good.”
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“The price of diesel is an election issue,” said Varney. “At six dollars and fifty cents a gallon, farmers and truckers are just not happy.” Skyrocketing fuel prices have pushed agriculture and transportation companies to the brink, and as Fox reported last week, the situation has forced a wave of trucking companies to go bankrupt. This has caused sentiments toward the president and his party to sour in farming states, to the point where polling shows Trump’s approval is underwater even in deep red places like Texas and Nebraska. As a result, Varney explained, “Trump is in a very tight spot,” frantic for a solution that will bring down fuel prices before the fast-approaching midterms.
His latest attempt, Varney elaborated, involves buying millions of gallons of diesel from Russia. As many have noted, this move has complicated, often contradictory geopolitical implications. It provides funding to Russia at a critical moment in its war against Ukraine, an American ally, and the U.S. recently passed a law that would raise sanctions against buyers of Russian fuel. What’s more, Russia has been providing support to Iran over the course of its conflict with the U.S. As Varney notes, however, Trump’s plan depended on an “energy ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine, but within hours of its announcement, the former attacked energy facilities in the latter, so “the status of the ceasefire is not clear. No word on Russian diesel sales. The price is still north of six dollars a gallon, and President Trump, well, he’s upset just about everyone.” To make matters worse, attacks on energy infrastructure and transport throughout Saudi Arabia and the Gulf have exacerbated the situation, and “the price of oil remains above $90 a barrel.”
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While Fox has long been aligned with Trump, their relationship has become strained in recent years due to the legal and financial repercussions faced by the network for pushing his 2020 election denial claims, and as it’s become clear that he’s torpedoed the GOP’s midterm chances. As a result, Fox has given less and less airtime to Trump and his rallies, while its hosts and guests have been increasingly open about their criticism of the president. “Acknowledge that their pain at the pump is real,” said one panelist recently regarding Trump’s tendency to dismiss affordability concerns. “Their pain in the pantry is real. The chaos at the kitchen table is real.” And as one guest admitted last week, “Inflation is not going away. It’s not transitory. I can’t believe I just said that. Sorry, everybody.”
With his solutions to the problems he created in the first place failing, says Varney, “the President is exasperated. Three weeks to the election and the wars in Ukraine and Iran have not produced the results he expected. Voters are exasperated too.” Despite Trump’s efforts, “everyone feels the sting of four-dollar gas and six-dollar diesel.” And while he’s flailing for a fix, concludes Varney, “Perception is reality. Voters see the gas station signs. That is reality. The news on energy is just not good.”
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