Trump orders DOJ probe into oil companies over gas prices

President Donald Trump said he had instructed the Justice Department to investigate oil companies over gasoline prices, accusing them of price gouging even as pump prices kept easing nationwide. He did not name any specific companies in the post on Truth Social, and the White House and Justice Department did not immediately comment.

GasBuddy’s live ticker put the U.S. average regular gasoline price at $3.906 a gallon at 12:55 a.m. EST on June 24, down 9.1 cents from the previous week and 59.7 cents from the previous month, though still 68.4 cents above a year earlier. AAA put the national average at $4.12 on June 11, down for three straight weeks from $4.56 on May 21.

Trump’s complaint rested on the gap between crude prices and what drivers pay at the pump, but retail gasoline does not move on crude alone. Refinery margins, federal and state taxes, distribution costs and regional supply disruptions all shape the final price Americans see. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recorded consumer prices rising 4.2% in May from a year earlier, while the energy index climbed 3.9% and accounted for more than sixty percent of the month’s increase.

Oil markets had also been shifting as traders expected smoother crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz, a signal that pushed prices lower again after earlier spikes linked to the Iran conflict. Trump nevertheless argued that the decline in gasoline was too slow and not proportional to the drop in crude.

Federal law has no gasoline-specific anti-gouging statute, although many states have emergency price-gouging laws. The Federal Trade Commission monitors gasoline and diesel markets and investigates possible antitrust violations in oil and gas markets, so federal enforcement generally turns on evidence of collusion, deception or other unlawful conduct, not simply high prices.

In 2022, House legislation aimed at gasoline price gouging advanced in Congress.