US President Donald Trump on Sunday blamed Ukraine for a fresh US diesel price record, telling reporters, “This is done by what’s happening with Russia and Ukraine” rather than his own war in Iran. Trump made the comments during a trip to the Irish Open in County Clare, saying he had already told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to leave Russian diesel facilities alone because Kyiv has “plenty of other targets” to hit instead.
Diesel hit a national average of $6.20 a gallon on Sunday, up roughly 55% since the war with Iran began on February 28 and above the previous record of $5.816 that diesel hit in June 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Most analysts trace the spike to the Iran war, not Ukraine, and the Strait of Hormuz disruption that has squeezed global supply since February.
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Trump predicted just days before the Ireland trip that prices would “drop precipitously… when we WIN the war with Iran,” and his own Justice Department opened a price-gouging investigation into fuel costs in June.
Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries — more than 20 hit since summer — add a real, additional strain, but it’s not a replacement for the Hormuz disruption. Canada supplied 64% of the crude oil the US imported last year. Oil is priced globally rather than locally, so when the Hormuz disruption pushes crude benchmarks higher everywhere, Canadian crude gets more expensive too. That extra cost reaches pumps in Ohio and Manitoba even though none of the oil passed through the Middle East.
