“When losses happen, somebody’s got to pay for it.”
Called Freedom Fuel Network, the enterprise encompasses dozens of gas stations throughout Pennsylvania and New Jersey, USA Today reported, although it isn’t exactly clear which locations are open for business. Plastered in American flag decals and “Freedom Fuel” branding, the gas stations seem to be selling unleaded gasoline for the fixed-price of $3.47 per gallon, about 32 cents cheaper than the current average price in the US.
According to GasBuddy, nearby prices range from $3.85 to as much as $4.49 — no doubt reflecting the slower drip of oil from the president’s costly war on Iran, which burst back into active fighting this week.
As head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy Patrick De Haan told the Philadelphia Inquirer, the current price of crude oil means there’s no way Freedom Fuel’s $3.47 price point can turn a profit.
“Stations selling at this price, it’s not sustainable,” De Haan explained. “Generally, when losses happen, somebody’s got to pay for it.”
De Haan raises an obvious question: who is paying for it? If the stations are losing money on every gallon, somebody has to make up the difference somewhere — whether out of Trump’s pocket, that of a friendly donor, or the taxpayer’s. And if it’s a private company taking the hit, how long until they stop subsidizing Pennsylvania drivers?
Already, the stunt seems to be distorting local markets. As of Wednesday, a nearby Sam’s Club in Dresher dropped its price to match the $3.47 figure — surely good news for anybody buying gas in South Eastern Pennsylvania, but as always, the devil is in the details.
https://www.jalopnik.com/2210988/donald-trump-giving-communism-try-government-approved/
When I first heard this story, the article gave me a laugh.
Communism is when gas prices low.
“Out of Trump’s pocket” LMAO whatever they’re on, I’d like to have some.
I keep seeing claims that Trump is doing this, but I have not seen anyone make any actual assertions of an evidence to that effect.
While Trump has jumped on the promotion, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s in on it somehow, it really sounds to me like some MAGA asshat who’s trying to take advantage for publicity.
I’d really like to know who’s paying for it, though, and why. Maybe it’s just an introductory price to convince people they’ll sell it for less, but I don’t see how that’ll get long-term customers.
Either way, the wild claims with nothing to back them up (i.e. OP’s title) really annoy me. There’s so much to be angry at. Fabricating lies is not needed. Or certainly saying things that are not known to be true - even the article doesn’t say Trump is doing this, just the submitted title.
Is it possible Trump or MAGA or someone affiliated is trying to make the entire fuel station system go belly up in Pennsilvania so that they can have the monopoly?
Likely both. The fuel has to come from somewhere. An established refinery or distributor has to be involved. You can’t just sell gas from a lemonade pitcher, stations are highly regulated as well.
My guess would be some donor and some oil industry VP of Bafoonery came up with a plan to force prices lower in a couple states with important seats coming up in the midterms. Just for the good vibes. The lower price forces everyone else to drop to at-cost sales. And the legal top cover you get Miller, T-Shiz, and Bessent.
I’m fairly sure the business was traced back to a corporation that Trump dealt with in previous instances.
Targeting Pennsylvania metros and other swing states near you!
Bro MAGA is copying Russia again!
The Gang Solves the Gas Crisis
This is the glut of Venezuelan oil that Trump is stealing from their country and probably selling to his buddies in the refinery business for cheap.
This really doesn’t make sense if you have even the little knowledge I have of how the petroleum pipeline works (and I know very little). Oil is refined in refineries and gets sent out in bulk. At the more local level, it’s all the same gas - companies put in additives that can be per-brand, but the gas going to one gas station is the same basic gas going to another.
Perhaps there’s a financial thing going on where they put cheap oil in and so sign contracts for a lower price on the other end or something, but it’s not going to be that same oil.
So when I see assertions like this that get popular support and agreement, I find it bothersome. I’d rather know the truth than make random accusations. The truth is bad enough without bringing fiction in.
It’s going to turn out that he is waiving the federal gas tax for some buddies and a cut.
This is not plausible.
The only two things I’ve seen that are plausible:
- Loss leader - they’re using this to make a splash and prices will rise later
- Some political group is subsidizing for political purposes
I gotta say, I thought the economy was way more fragile and would have no chance to withstand this concerted effort to bring it down. I mean it will 💯 go down in biblical flames, I’m just amazed it took so long!
I think the people who are trying to make it happen are surprised to. Doesn’t matter to them because they will end up owning the planet anyway, but still!
You gotta remember that since the invention of the 401(k), the US economy has been propped up by the life savings of…well, pretty much everybody, at this point. Lots of institutional money, legally required to be invested in certain places, gives a lot of cushion for slashing and burning.
For now.
Ai bubble came out of nowhere
He’s draining our reserves. God we’re fucked.
I think we all know by now collapse is inevitable
Come join the anticommunist Republican party. They’ve got:
- Price controls
- Closed markets
- State-owned industry
Edit adding a 4th
- The living-or-dead status of party members as closely guarded state secrets
and it will be as shit as if it were run by commies
get it now?
- State approved media
Oh yeah thats a good one
All my libertarian friends hate it, but somehow keep voting for it.
Libertarianism is not a real ideology. Its just three raccoons in a trench coat. Anarcho-capitalism is a contradiction in terms.
Libertarians are just conservatives + weed - religion. They claim to not be cons but still vote 100% in that direction
Libertarians are just insanely stupid people who wish to appear intelligent. Because they think those views make them seem intelligent, lol
Libertarians are just the ideological opposite but intellectual equivalent of tankies.
A number of the ones in my acquaintance circles are just being propagandized.
The first 10 or so talking points speak well to prepper adjacent and it kinda feels like it wouldn’t be that hard for things to fall over. Then they start the fiscal republican tract, so their businesses can make as much money as possible.
By the time they get down to the nuts and bolts of what a true free economy would look like, they check out with we’d figure that out real quick instead of figuring out that it’s just another pyramid scheme putting their own people in absolute power stealing every last cent of money that goes to keeping up roads and anything having to do with food provisioning and safety.
Yeah my assessment is too simplistic. First, the person is looking to find a way to codify their self-serving desires (ie. the business owner like you mention). Then they decide it needs to sound smarter than it is. BOOM: libertarianism is the perfect fit. Or at least that’s always been my impression. When they try to explain their views, they seem really focused on how much sense they make and how logically consistent they are being. Inconvenient facts are never acknowledged though, of course.
100% agree
What else would they do?
Vote for a democrat?
If they want less authoritarianism, yes!
Or better yet, somebody who calls themselves “socialist” or “progressive,” because at least they tend to be decent on civil rights, if not necessarily stuff like economic policy. It’s ridiculous, but Bernie Sanders is one of the most actually-libertarian people in Congress.
If some of the “progressives” could give up on some of their overly-bureaucratic ideas with excessive means-testing (like welfare instead of UBI, “affordable” [i.e. “subsidized”] housing instead of zoning reform to reduce costs, etc.) they’d be perfect actual-libertarian candidates.
I’m hoping they keep their asses at home…
If only their purity testing was as strong as the left’s
I suppose they must not live in a state with a modern voting system. Staying at home shouldn’t proclude anyone from voting, but here we are.
Well yeah, but “staying home” is a colloquialism for not voting. I don’t think that meant that mail in voting is bad.
I knew what they meant obviously, and I didn’t think they were saying mail in voting was bad, but I will admit it took me a half second to remember that some states still require in-person voting.
This is also coming from someone who learned that going to the polls wasn’t a historical thing when I was like 22, when polls being closed made national news or I saw a article about how racist/classist in-person voting was or something. I always just thought America had moved on from that a long time ago, as I grew up in Washington, and I didn’t know a time when my parents had to vote in person. One of the many things keeping me attached to this state I suppose.
I mean, what choice do they even have? They have to vote R.
No they don’t. Lots of (D)s, and even the occasional (I) like Bernie Sanders, are less authoritarian than pretty much every single (R) is these days.
Yes, because supporting the GOP means they get to use slurs again. Thats what really matters.
They’re still your friends?
Also: do they really hate it, tho?
The ones I talk to do.
It’s owned by Trump not the state. Closer to authoritarian dictatorship than communism.
Where’s the fuel coming from though? I wouldn’t be surprised to find that it’s from Venezuela and he’s literally stealing it via the US government to sell himself.
They’re the same picture. (The former, that is.)
Silly person, that’s not what communist means. It means “anything/anyone we don’t like.”
It’s more of an amorphous ideal than a concrete set of “rules”.
Any time you step out of the classroom political labels become meaningless.
“Capitalist” America built a giant interstate highway network that seized millions of acres of private land.
“Communist” China has a few score billionaires.
And don’t get me started on the National Socialist Party and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
Close, communism is anything they think they can’t profit from.
My first thought at first headline was “now I’m outright paying for these motherfuckers’ gas too?”
Ok here’s my supposition:
The summary is: wealthy donor(s) are covering the loss so Trump doesn’t lose the midterms.
The longer version is: most fuel consumed in the US is produced domestically. There no “shortage” because of the Iran situation, but prices increase because there’s no alternative putting downward pressure on prices.
Suppose some domestic producer decided that the cost to them of trump being impeached is greater than the profit foregone by selling fuel at less than market rates.
Or, suppose Trump said to local producers, if you keep me in office we will keep this Iran thing going indefinitely, so process are down when he needs them to be but can go back up after an election.
No matter how you slice it, seems like a recipe for hyper wealth concentration.
US is a net exporter of refined fuels (what you put in your car), but the US doesn’t produce the heavy crude that its refineries are all set up to convert into that fuel.
It’s like saying you produce more cakes than you consume. That doesn’t really mean shit when you run out of sugar, bomb the supermarket, mine the roads between you and the supermarket, and burn all the bridges between you and your neighbors. Can’t exactly “borrow a cup of sugar” your way out of this one.
Whataa beautiful analogy!
@cannedtuna Let me get this straight…
City-run grocery stores selling at-cost: Communist Bread Lines
Gas stations with government-controlled gas prices: Freedom Fuel Network
Best thing you can do right now is learn to live without a car and vote people who support anything about public transportation especially if that includes trains and trolleys and building more
I live in a state where it’s almost impossible to be without a vehicle. I’ve always wanted to move to a more walkable city with public transit.
Only 11% of Americans live in walkable cities… That ain’t realistic.
I mean same but gas/cars do not look sustainable
Okay I’ll just walk 25 miles to my job every day til they get those trains put in.
I’m in the same situation but it doesn’t change the fact this is not sustainable and this not going to become easier anytime soon for any of us
55 miles for my husband :(
