Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) took to social media this week to ridicule, mock, and criticize the recent surge in gas prices in the United States and to connect them to President Donald Trump. His social media accounts have blasted the president over the country’s soaring fuel costs, blaming the military conflict in Iran for the hikes.
While Newsom is not wrong about the reasons for the increase, he’s completely intellectually disingenuous because his state has the most expensive gasoline in the country, and it has been so for the majority of the time he has been governor. To go after Trump for high gas prices is utterly delusional.
In a post on X from Sunday night, Governor French Laundry pulled a 2013 Trump tweet in which the future president said, “Did you notice that oil prices just went up big time?” Newsom responded with “We noticed.” It was a snarky comment, one laced with hypocrisy given how expensive gas prices are in California compared to the U.S. national average. For example, while the U.S. national average for regular gas has soared to $3.478 per gallon, according to AAA, the average price in California is up to $5.204 per gallon.
Unlike the surge in the national average gas price caused by the war with Iran, California’s gas prices have regularly been the highest in the country, well above the national average.
For example, when the national average hit a five-year low of $2.79 per gallon in January, the average price at California pumps was $4.223 per gallon. A month ago, the average gas price in Newsom’s California was already $4.478 per gallon, well above the national average of $2.902.
As for noticing, one should also ask Newsom if he noticed that a year ago, the average price for a gallon of regular gas in his state was $4.712. Compared with the national average, the average was only $3.089. Newsom should notice the petroleum chaos that he rules over in his state before trying to criticize Trump about high gas prices. His comments on gas prices are completely tone deaf and indicative of the depths of his dishonesty and deception as a political leader.
Moreover, he tried to double down on these criticisms, with his press office celebrating California’s economic stability amid rising gas prices in a separate social media post.
When an X account posted a video showing the high gas prices in California, the Governor Newsom Press Office X account blamed the prices on Iran, bragging that prices “stayed below $5 for nearly two years.”
“No, you ding dong,” said the Newsom Press Office X account. “This is because of Trump’s war with Iran. Average gas prices in California have stayed below $5 for nearly two years — until now.”
While technically true, this is an oversimplification. For example, during Thanksgiving, the average price for a gallon of regular gas in California was $4.578, while the national average was only $3.042. But some California counties had average gas prices over $5 per gallon, with a couple approaching $6. Newsom criticizing Trump about a temporary surge in gas prices while his own house is in petroleum disorder shows just how sinister and duplicitous Democrats are.
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It’s undeniable that, during his tenure as governor, Californians have regularly suffered from extraordinarily high gas prices. Newsom is either a pathological liar and manipulator who regularly seeks to deceive the people who voted him into office, or he is so incompetent as California’s leader that he is not aware of how unaffordable gas is in his state compared to the rest of the country.
Either way, it is laughable that he chose to make gas prices a legitimate criticism while overseeing arguably the worst state in the country for fuel affordability. When it comes to the economic viability of fuel costs while in office as an elected official, there is no comparison between Trump and Newsom. Trump is, by far, the vastly superior choice.