Trump was asked about tapping emergency oil reserves to lower gas prices, and his response was to point the finger at one person

Gas prices in the United States are currently at their highest levels in years, but President Trump has no plans to tap into the country’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to bring costs down. The decision has sparked debate, and the reason behind it appears to be largely political.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called on Trump to release oil from the national stockpile. He posted on X, saying that “due to Donald Trump’s reckless war of choice, gas prices have surged to their highest levels in years.” Schumer also quoted Trump’s response to rising prices as “If they rise, they rise,” and urged him to “release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve IMMEDIATELY to bring relief to Americans at the pump.”

The political problem is clear: if Trump taps the SPR now, it would undermine a key argument Republicans have used against former President Biden. According to Axios, Republicans have long claimed that Biden’s major release from the reserve in 2022 was done to influence elections, not for genuine emergency reasons.

Tapping the reserve would hand Democrats a political win Republicans are not willing to give

Trump himself has been critical of how Biden used the reserve. When asked about tapping the SPR over the weekend, Trump said that “Biden used them so that he can get some extra votes in the elections.” He also claimed that Biden “brought it down to the lowest level it has ever been.” The recent attacks on Iran that rattled global energy markets have only added more pressure on the administration to act.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve is a large emergency supply of crude oil stored in underground salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast. It holds hundreds of millions of barrels and is intended for national emergencies. Biden authorized a significant release from the reserve in 2022 to address high gas prices at the time.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright addressed the situation on Sunday. He said the SPR “shouldn’t have been deleted, depleted for the 2022 midterm elections as the Biden administration did.” He also noted that the current administration has other short-term options and has been working to refill the reserve when oil prices are low.

Wright added that the storage facilities needed over $100 million in repairs to reach full capacity, and that fully refilling the reserve could cost billions of dollars. Meanwhile, the administration has also been pursuing new foreign policy actions targeting hostile governments that could have broader economic consequences.

Wright downplayed the current price increases, calling them temporary. He said higher prices are “a small price to pay to get to a world where energy prices are returned back to where they were, and I’m talking weeks, certainly not months.” Republicans broadly agree, suggesting the recent price spike, which followed last week’s attacks on Iran, is driven by market fears and is unlikely to last.