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Skyrocketing Gas Prices Could Lose the Senate for Trump

Republicans worry about the midterms but insist it will all be worth it in the long run.

Joe Perticone's avatar
Joe Perticone
March 19∙ Paid
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(Composite by Hannah Yoest / Getty / Shutterstock)

Gas, break, dip

The skyrocketing price of gas is one of the most ubiquitous and easy-to-grasp financial difficulties that Americans across the country have to deal with. It makes every little stop at the pump harder, and everyone who notices it tends to cast it on to the greater economy. Even people who don’t buy gas see the prices displayed in giant, neon lights all over the place.

Fluctuations in gas prices typically result from complex policy decisions, global events, and supply-and-demand issues. But after the average national gas price jumped from under $3 per gallon to almost $4 in just a couple of weeks, it became clear that the most recent changes at the pump have a very simple cause: President Donald J. Trump and his war of choice in Iran.

The causal picture here is clear enough that even members of the president’s party don’t disagree with the basic outline. The Senate Republicans I caught up with on the Hill over the past few days acknowledged to me that the rapid rise in gas prices is Trump’s doing.

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