President Donald Trump has ordered the Justice Department to investigate major oil companies over gasoline prices, accusing Big Oil of failing to pass sharply lower crude costs on to American workers and families fast enough.
In a Truth Social post Wednesday, Trump said oil companies are paying much less for crude but have not lowered pump prices in proportion. The president’s message that if oil prices are falling, working Americans should not still be getting squeezed at the pump.
The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil. Those prices are dropping like a rock! In other words, customers are being “gouged.” I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into… pic.twitter.com/MfI76kzXbO
— Commentary Donald J. Trump Truth Social Posts On X (@TrumpTruthOnX) June 24, 2026
“The big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil,” Trump wrote. “Those prices are dropping like a rock!”
“In other words, customers are being ‘gouged,’” he added. “I have instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this.”
Trump ended with a direct warning to the industry. “Gasoline prices better start going down a lot faster than what I’m seeing!” he wrote.
The move marks a hard pro-worker, national-populist turn in Trump’s energy agenda. The president has championed American energy production, but he is now making clear that oil giants do not get to profit from falling crude costs while families, workers and small businesses keep paying inflated prices.
Trump did not name specific companies. Instead, he targeted what he described as a broader industry failure to reflect lower oil prices in retail gasoline costs.
Gasoline prices have been falling for weeks, but the decline has not satisfied the White House. GasBuddy data cited by Reuters showed the national average falling 14.1 cents in one week to $3.85 a gallon on Monday, while AAA placed the average closer to $3.92 in recent tracking.
Trump said Tuesday that the national average had already dropped by 60 cents “just from a short while ago.” But his message Wednesday was that the decline should be much steeper given the collapse in crude prices.
This, for working American families, is not some kind of abstract market debate. Gas prices hit Americans every time they drive to work, take children to school, run errands, deliver goods, operate a small business or plan a summer trip.