President Donald Trump has instructed the Department of Justice to probe oil companies for not reducing their rates in line with falling costs.

The president revealed this in a Truth Social post published late Wednesday in which he accused the companies of price gouging.

“The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil,” he wrote.

“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!”

: President Trump accuses major oil companies of gouging American consumers by failing to lower gas prices despite crude oil prices dropping sharply.

He has ordered the DOJ to immediately investigate and demanded faster relief at the pump for families.… pic.twitter.com/REuemHm7mf

— Commentary Donald J. Trump Posts From Truth Social (@TrumpDailyPosts) June 24, 2026

The national average gas price per gallon was at $3.93 as of Tuesday, according to the American Automobile Association’s fuel tracker website. This was down from the high of $4.56 that was observed on Memorial Day.

Meanwhile, crude oil closed at just $73.04 a barrel on Tuesday, down from a high of almost $120 a barrel recorded in March.

However, speaking with CNBC, Center on Global Energy Policy senior research scholar Karen Young warned that retail prices don’t tend to move in lockstep with crude prices.

“That’s not really how gasoline prices work in the U.S.,” she said. “There are state and local taxes, which are applied to the price of gas at stations in the United States. It really is up to refiners, and it takes a couple of weeks before crude prices drop, and then prices at refineries, and then on to consumers before they can really respond.”

In addition, the president’s sudden attack on the oil industry is a 180-degree reversal from the cozy relationship he’s traditionally established with them.

“Oil and gas executives spent an estimated $445 million to influence the 2024 election cycle in Trump’s favor, including some $96 million in direct donations to his campaign and supporting PACs,” according to The Daily Beast.

And since retaking the White House, the president has implemented a number of policies to benefit the industry, including the declaration of a “national energy emergency.” He’s also fast-tracked liquefied natural gas export approvals, and he approved a bill with more oil/gas subsidies.

Hours before he published his Truth Social post, the president was publicly touting lower gas/oil prices:

NOW: “The average price of gasoline nationwide is down $0.60 a gallon just from a short while ago… but remember that our oil in the middle of this conflict was less than it was for Sleepy Joe Biden.”

President Trump touts falling oil prices while calling out his predecessors… pic.twitter.com/OMNjPUKd5o

— Fox News (@FoxNews) June 23, 2026

The president’s focus on lowering prices fits with recent polls showing that a majority of Americans blame him and him alone for high gas prices.

A PBS News/NPR/Marist poll published last month found that a whopping 63 percent of Americans blamed the president for gas prices. Numbers like this haven’t been good for the GOP’s prospects, according to Young.

“You get angry people showing up who are no longer just anti-Trump Democrats, they’re also frustrated independents, really driven in large part by the economy,” she told PBS News last month.

“And then these same economic woes are what are depressing Republican turnout. So you put that whole math together, and that is a really dangerous place [for the GOP],” she added.

Some say Republican turnout likely won’t be helped by Trump now echoing the same grievance rhetoric of Democrats like former President Joe Biden.

“Now you’re sounding like a Democrat,” one critic wrote on social media. “If a Gas station has a 50,000 gallon tank that the owner just paid $4.00 a gallon to fill up they are not going to lower the price until the tank is refilled at the lower per gallon price. They are going to keep the same margin per gallon regardless of the price to stay in business.”

They weren’t wrong…