Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis., told Newsmax that President Donald Trump is right to call out oil companies and U.S. gasoline retailers for continued high prices.
"Once again, Donald Trump is correct," Van Orden said Wednesday on "National Report." "And let's think about this. At the peak of the [current] gas prices, they did not reach the level [they were] under the Biden administration. So, all of a sudden, every single Democrat is concerned about gas prices. They said nothing when it was $5 a gallon."
Van Orden said Trump's price-gouging accusations are supported by reality.
"The president is correct," he said. "There's a difference between profiting and profiteering. So, when you can have these wild swings in commodities because people want to wring their hands about stuff, the oil companies and the folks that are producing this energy have been gouging American citizens, and it's unacceptable.
"They need to understand that, in fact, they, too, are Americans, or if they're part of a company that is here in the United States or they're a global consortium, they have to understand that they are jamming freedom-loving people for profits. And that's not OK."
Trump ordered the Justice Department early Wednesday to investigate major oil companies, accusing them of "gouging" American drivers by failing to pass along the steep drop in crude prices that followed the U.S.-Iran peace deal.
Trump's Truth Social post arrived as the national gasoline average sat near $3.91 a gallon, far below May's wartime peak but still about $1.14 above the level recorded in January, before U.S. forces opened the Iran campaign.
"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.
Van Orden also told National Report that all Americans, especially members of Congress, need to ignore the false information being pushed by Iran's surviving leadership.
"They need to be looked at for what they are, and that is a criminal regime," he said. "So stop listening to these mullahs trying to influence the American public through their propaganda."
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