Trump clashes with his energy secretary on gas prices: 'Totally wrong'

[0:00] The average price of gas is still above four dollars a gallon as we enter week eight of the [0:05] war in Iran. Now that price is down since last week but still far higher than before the war [0:12] began. So when could Americans see gas prices down below three dollars a gallon again? Well [0:20] here's what the Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Jake Tapper on State of the Union. I don't know [0:26] that could happen later this year that might not happen till next year but prices of likely [0:31] peaked and they'll start going down. Certainly with a resolution of this conflict you'll see [0:35] prices go down. This morning President Trump talked to the Hill and undercut his own Energy [0:43] Secretary rather. He said quote no I think he's wrong on that totally wrong. I'm joined by a very [0:51] smart group of reporters today CNN's Manu Raju, Emily Davies of the Washington Post and Ested Herndon [0:56] with Vox. Let's talk about energy and gas prices. Manu that's it's not surprising that the president [1:05] hears one of the people who work for him talking and probably saying something that is I mean not [1:12] probably almost definitely saying something that is true based on the data that he's looking at that [1:17] gas prices are not going to come back down and gets upset about it. Never mind that I remember [1:23] watching the president's interview with Maria Bartiromo last Sunday and he said something [1:29] similar. He said it could be around the midterms. They could go up. They could go down or it could [1:35] be even higher. A little bit higher he said. He said it could be even higher. I think that's exactly [1:39] what I was just about to say. He literally said that at that moment. When he said that I mean [1:44] it immediately stuck out because the message from the Republican Party since the onset of this war has been [1:50] done. Don't worry. Gas prices are going to come down. It's OK. They don't have a plan to deal with gas [1:55] prices. Their plan is to hope the war ends and that Americans will start seeing relief. So when the [2:01] president starts saying something that completely undercuts that that's one thing and then he hears [2:05] his energy secretary speak the truth because gas prices as we know they go up very quickly and they [2:11] take a very long time to subside and this is going to be a real political problem. The speaker knows it. [2:17] The party knows it, which is why they're not quite sure how they're going to deal with it. [2:20] Emily, I know you've been traveling out. I know you're in Iowa. Maybe you've done other traveling [2:25] since you and I last spoke, but talking to voters who are going to decide whether or not to blame [2:31] Republicans for the way that they see the economy going, gas prices specifically. And as you answer, [2:37] I just want to show a latest poll from over the weekend. This is a Quinnipiac University poll. [2:42] How much do you blame President Trump for rising gas prices? 65% say a lot or some. [2:50] Yes, I was in Nevada and Arizona last week and Iowa the week before. So I feel like I've talked [2:54] to people from a lot of different parts of the country who feel different ways about the gas [2:59] price issue. But one thing I will say is it feels still a little bit early to draw conclusions because [3:04] to your point, gas prices go up so quickly that I think voters intuitively believe the president [3:11] that they will also come down quickly. Like it doesn't really make sense to somebody who's not [3:15] following the intricacies of the market that it would take so long for them to fall. And so it's [3:19] still been a relatively short period of time. They're believing him that the second he kind of decides [3:24] to end the war, gas prices will fall. But right now there's certainly, as you see there, a lot of [3:29] frustration and that's reflected in conversations I've had. [3:32] Yeah, it feels like this, you know, the back and forth with the energy secretary speaks to something. [3:37] I think it's hurt Trump consistently in the second term. You can't really acknowledge reality. [3:40] And even his energy secretary doing so in words that he has similarly said has caused some of [3:45] his ire. And I think it just speaks to some of how Trump's a lot of these crises are self-imposed. [3:50] Like, you know, voters can, I think, and I've heard some make the association between tariffs and [3:55] the rising inflation. And Donald Trump has really made that easy for folks because it's not as if [4:00] these crises are were imposed on him. They're ones that he has driven. And so I think it's been [4:05] reflected not just in the polling you showed, but his approval ratings now in the 37 percent, [4:10] lowest he's seen. And we see some signs of disapproval rating rising among some Republicans, too. [4:13] Let's show. We actually have one we're going to show. Let's put it up on the screen. This is from [4:17] NBC. This is about President Trump's handling of the war. And this is approval, which I think [4:22] probably is driving the rest of his approval ratings. Go ahead. [4:24] Absolutely. And I was saying that there was a the right track, wrong track numbers in that polling [4:29] are the highest since it's been in his second term. And, you know, as I was mentioning, the [4:32] Republican approval rating of the amount of Republicans who say they strongly approve of [4:37] him is going down, too. And so I think although there has been some question about whether the [4:41] schism and MAGA among, you know, the Megyn Kellys or Tucker Carlson's represented his true [4:46] coalition, it could be that they're more of a leading indicator and that we're going to see the [4:50] public, particularly as gas prices come through the summer, might show more of that split on the [4:55] Republicans. I mean, the real problem is they've never even from the beginning of this war ever [4:59] really sold it to the American public. So he came in knowing with very low. People didn't want to go [5:05] to war to begin with. And typically and when we've seen in conflicts past war support for war decreases [5:10] over time. And that is exactly what happened here. You already started at a low point. It's getting [5:14] worse. And especially as people are getting hit with high gas prices. I hear some members of [5:18] Congress tell me, well, members, constituents, voters, they're OK with it's a patriotic duty to pay more [5:26] for gas because of prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. But that is not the message that a lot of [5:32] Republicans are saying right now. And it's about the expectation game. One of President Trump's tics, if you [5:39] will, has historically been two weeks. Anything has going to happen in two weeks, whether it's a plan or something [5:45] is going to end or going to begin. That has been the case since the beginning of this war with Iran. [5:53] Let's watch. It's going to be finished pretty quickly. I do see a deal in Iran. Could be soon. [6:00] We are going to finish the job and we're going to finish it very fast. We're getting very close. [6:05] I think it's close to over. I mean, I view it as very close to over. [6:08] I will say the war in Iran is going along swimmingly. We can do whatever we want. And it should be, it should [6:18] be ending pretty soon. It's going to end soon. So that's what the people are hearing. And it's not [6:24] happening. It's here. It's going to end soon. It's going to end tomorrow. It's going to end in two [6:28] weeks. And I think Manu's point is important. When that comes after they never laid out a clear [6:32] reasoning to the American public going into this, never coordinated with allies. And I really think [6:36] Trump across the board has lost a lot of credibility and narrative setting power in [6:42] this second term. And so I think he's used to being able to say, oh, I'll do this then or I'll [6:47] do that then. And, you know, the base only will follow along. And it's not as if we're seeing like [6:51] a huge thing in terms of the numbers. But I think that power, that determinative power is getting [6:56] less so. And so you're seeing some of those cracks among Republican caucus. And I just think more so [7:02] his his MAGA coalition went beyond the strict party. And so those type of people he [7:06] brought in are the ones most likely to be upset by some of these actions. [7:10] Yeah. I mean, when two thirds of people responding disapprove of the way you're handling the war, [7:18] it's not great. And obviously they know that at the White House, which is why they have talks [7:21] coming and they're trying desperately to wrap it up. Do you believe the price of oil and gas will be [7:26] lower before the midterm elections? I hope so. I mean, I think so. It could be. It could be [7:31] the same or maybe a little bit higher. Americans can high gas prices. Well, they're not very high. If you look at [7:38] what they were supposed to be in order to get rid of a nuclear weapon with the danger that entails. [7:43] President Trump pushed back on Energy Secretary Chris Wright's comments this morning, telling The [7:50] Hill that Wright is, quote, totally wrong, his words, totally wrong about it potentially taking [7:57] until next year for gas prices to drop below three dollars a gallon. Let's go live right now to our [8:03] senior business reporter, David Goldman. David, how should consumers interpret these very different [8:08] messages from the White House? And when might we actually start seeing gas prices returning to [8:14] what they were before the war with Iran? And you need to add in Treasury Secretary Scott [8:19] Besant, who said last week that we could have gas with a three in front of it in the summer. So what [8:26] does that mean? Is it 3.99 or is it three with a couple zeros in front of it? There are active [8:31] questions about when we would actually see three dollars. The thing to know is that oil needs to [8:40] come down to historically around 60 dollars a barrel before we start to see sub three dollar prices. And [8:48] we are nowhere close to that right now. We are in the 90s right now, closing in on 90 for US oil. And [8:57] what we don't know is when we're going to see that straight reopened. There's a lot that needs to [9:02] happen before then. And so that's where we are right now with a big question mark about the future path [9:08] of gas prices. [9:14] you