In an interview with Jeanine Pirro of the FNC, former President Donald Trump was highly critical of the inflationary trend under the Biden administration.
During an interview aired Saturday night, Trump said he could significantly lower average prices, but predicted prices could rise north of $ 10 a gallon.
PIRRO: Beef prices have now risen by 17.6%. The average American family spends an additional $ 175.00 a month. Gas prices are up to $ 7.00 in California, $ 5.00 in New York. We can’t afford – these people.
And Joe Biden, when asked about gas prices, what he would do about it, said, “I don’t see anything that would go down – significantly lower gas prices in the near future.”
TRUMP: Unbelievable.
PIRRO: He doesn’t know.
TRUMP: No, he has no idea. Look, one of the things I was most proud of was that our country became energy independent. We did not need the Middle East. We did not need Russia. We didn’t need anyone. We had ours – we had more than they did.
We were number one far above Saudi Arabia and you know that, and Russia. Number one by far. I had pipelines, the Keystone XL pipeline. Amazingly, I finished the Russian pipeline. I was not good to Russia. I got along well with Russia, I got along well with Putin, and they weren’t happy with Trump. I can tell you that.
But Biden opened this huge huge pipeline all over Europe, but he closed the XL, and I have to say because you’ve heard it a thousand times. More importantly, we are no longer energy independent. I was so proud of that.
For the first time in history, yes, you know, they say 75 years, but I don’t believe we’ve ever been energy independent.
PIRRO: He was great. It was big.
TRUMP: We were energy independent. We did so much – the price was eighty-seven dollars a gallon, okay if you look at the numbers.
PIRRO: Noro.
TRUMP: And now, yesterday, they had $ 7.70 in a certain part of California. It is always leading. It will follow and it will go much higher than that and Biden has sent people to go see Russia, Saudi Arabia and other OPEC members that we need help because we don’t have enough.
Now, when you talk about inflation, in my opinion, the biggest factor is energy-free. Trucks, factories, everything, supplies, planes, everything – so energy-based that energy is so expensive now. We don’t have enough oil.
You know, I’ve filled my strategic reserves for almost nothing. When the oil reached the bottom, we had – we were almost empty of supplies and no one thought about it. I said you know, this would be a great time to recharge it. We will buy it cheap.
I never got credit. I don’t think anyone mentioned it yet, but I bought 75 million barrels, I believe it was. Seventy-five million barrels, which is a huge order. It was good for two things. Prices have become so low that it has hurt our energy jobs, and we bought it like hell cheap and it is – now it wants to use that energy, that oil I bought at a great price.
It should be used in emergencies. Now he wants to empty it to lower prices.
PIRRO: But he also said it would save us about 18 cents a gallon.
TRUMP: Oh, it’s not 18 cents.
PIRRO: He doesn’t –
TRUMP: No, it would save – I could – I could solve that in six months. I bet I could drop it to $ 2.00 or $ 2.50. That will be over $ 10.00.
PIRRO: Well, doesn’t he know how to do it?
TRUMP: Well, I don’t think so because his answer was weird. You can lower it by a few cents. A few cents? No. You get a lot of dollars.
PIRRO: How do you do that?
TRUMP: You have to let the oil companies get back to work. They terminated the leases, ended the ANWR because of Lisa Murkowski, who did a terrible job.
PIRRO: In Alaska.
TRUMP: She’s not a Republican. She says she’s a Republican – in Alaska.
Ronald Reagan tried to get him. Bush tried. Everyone was trying to get him. I did it. Everything was done.
Maybe it’s bigger than Saudi Arabia, okay, maybe. For decades, they struggled to make that happen. I did it. This would increase our supply. We are already by far the largest in the world.
PIRRO: I will say.
TRUMP: We’re not the biggest in the world right now. We terminated all leases on state-owned land that, frankly, had been pumping for years and not harming them, in an environmental way.
And if you look at natural gas, natural gas is very clean. Windmills are destroying our landscape and killing all the birds.
PIRRO: And it’s not necessarily effective.
TRUMP: Energy is so expensive. And do you know where turbines are made? Each of them –
PIRRO: China.
TRUMP: Germany and China.