Conservatives often criticize Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Zohran Mamdani for believing that government should direct private economic decisions. Yet when President Donald Trump recently warned gasoline retailers to lower their prices, or face “big problems,” he embraced a remarkably similar premise: that politicians should pressure private businesses to charge prices that the government considers acceptable.
According to a recent Fox News report, President Trump demanded that gasoline retailers immediately lower their prices, renewing his call for $2.50 gasoline. On Truth Social, he urged retailers to “DROP YOUR PRICE FOR OUR GREAT AMERICAN PEOPLE!” and warned that if they failed to do so, “big problems lie ahead.”
That matters because when politicians discuss gasoline prices, many Americans picture giant oil companies. In reality, roughly 95% of US gas stations are independently owned small businesses. Most do not buy gasoline directly from refiners. Instead, they purchase fuel through wholesale distributors, or “jobbers,” who deliver it to local stations. It’s these independent owners, not major oil companies, who set retail prices, based on local competition, taxes, operating costs, and, perhaps most importantly, the cost of replacing the fuel once their underground tanks are empty. Because gasoline profit margins are razor-thin, many stations rely more on convenience-store sales than on gasoline sales to remain profitable.
None of this means that government policy is irrelevant. President Trump is correct to criticize California’s role in high gasoline prices, for instance. California consistently has some of the highest gasoline prices in the nation, often $1.50 to $2.00 per gallon above the national average. Those higher prices reflect, in part, the state’s nation-leading gasoline excise tax (which climbed to 63.4¢ per gallon), state sales taxes, the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, cap-and-trade programs, and unique fuel formulation requirements. All of these state-mandated policies increase the baseline expense of supplying gasoline.
Many economic conservatives and libertarians, myself included, have criticized Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez, and Mamdani for advocating a larger government role in directing private economic decisions. At the very least, their calls for greater government intervention are consistent with the philosophy they have long espoused. The same standard should apply when a Republican president threatens private businesses over the prices they voluntarily charge. Free-market principles should not depend on which political party holds political power.
The real question is simple: Is it the legitimate role of government to pressure or threaten private businesses over the prices they voluntarily charge for their own property?
Hellbound and Down 