“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.
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
All my libertarian friends hate it, but somehow keep voting for it.
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.
Also: do they really hate it, tho?
The ones I talk to do.
- State approved media
Oh yeah thats a good one
It’s owned by Trump not the state. Closer to authoritarian dictatorship than communism.
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”.
and it will be as shit as if it were run by commies
get it now?
This is all you need to know.
Oh shit
Get an electric vehicle and install solar panels ASAP.
My brother in Christ, I own nothing and am going back to Monke. Like fr fr.
Be the change.
I am being the change. No kids. Electric vehicle. Don’t eat beef. Actively post about climate change. Promote solar/nuclear power. We can’t go back to monke, we must move forward.
Together we have hope. We will never meet and live far away from one another, but we are not alone and one day we will prevail.
Sometimes we need to go back to monke to remember what is is to be man.
One love.
This is like something out of a third world country. “Here is some cheap gas so keep supporting me.”
This is like something out of a third world country.
In many important ways, the U.S. already is. Especially in certain parts of the country.
Government subsidized gas is not an issue. But that’s not what’s going on. Trump is pocketing the money, cutting the gas with something else, selling stolen gas, or using tax payer funds for it (the last of which is whatever), but whatever he is doing isn’t being done out of the goodness of his heart.
All that Venezuelan oil has to be going somewhere. And someone who isn’t the Venezuelan or American Govt is getting paid.
50% water
And making people drive all over looking for it. So you get “E85” (I can guarantee it’ll be closer to the 50% ethanol than the 80% side), long lines, more traffic and a bad reputation for the gas stations where people buy bad gas.
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 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.
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.
You can always tell when someone doesn’t read the article, sees the headline, and jumps straight into the comments because it’s literally right there in both the article and the short version.
At the beginning of the article referenced:
The White House launched 25 Freedom Fuel gas stations, all selling fuel at $3.47 a gallon.
The White House announced the initiative on July 7 on X with a video of customers thanking President Donald Trump for lowering gas prices. The gas stations are located in the greater Philadelphia area, the White House told USA TODAY in an email on Tuesday, July 7.
I mean, did Trump come up with this idea? Very unlikely. I mean we all know how he operates at this point. Someone approaches him with an idea or product, and all Trump does is slap his name on it, ie: Trump Steaks, Trump Mobile, etc. and then he collects the royalties or kickbacks or whatever.
Either way, the wild claims with nothing to back them up
Again, you clearly didn’t read the article
i.e. OP’s title
Not my title, the community rules state:
- Post titles should be the same as the article used as the source. Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed.
even the article doesn’t say Trump is doing this, just the submitted title.
It’s in the actual article, not the TL;DR version for brevity because people don’t read full articles.
In a July 1st post on Trump’s social media platform Truth Social, the president praised a “VERY smart Retailer” for “stepping up,” and “lowering gas prices at 25 ‘FREEDOM FUEL’ Stations across the Greater Philadelphia Area.”
“This Retailer is taking the lead, and others should follow,” Trump lauded. “They are doing this because they love the USA.”
What, do you expect him to run it personally or something? It’s directly posted on the whitehouse.gov site. While everyone out here is using him to make money, if it’s on the .gov website it doesn’t really matter who came up with the idea, he stamped it, and had it put up on a government official site. If you want a list of where these actually are, they’re available on the Freedom Fuel website. Feel free to go drive out to them.
Couldn’t you say that all US gas stations are suspiciously cheap? This is just a little more straightforward, but it is a pretty subsidized industry. Unless I’m thinking about that wrong.
Honestly, how do most countries gas stations work, do they purchase fuel from the government?
My first thought at first headline was “now I’m outright paying for these motherfuckers’ gas too?”
Confused where he has got this chearp fuel from - is he selling the reseve?
I wouldn’t trust this fuel to start a forest fire, let alone fuel a car.
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!
If you see one of these stations:
BUY THE GAS
They are selling well under market value, it’s a loss, they aren’t making money off it, it isn’t taxpayer subsidized.
This is the equivalent of someone making a toll free number to report rainbow painted sidewalks, everyone needs to call in and run up the phone bill with fake reports.
Make them piss away their money.
That’s like saying: everyone buy from Amazon, they’re undercutting everyone and taking a loss. Buy while the getting’s good.
Then when the competition suffers and options are reduced, prices will creep up and they’ve established themselves as a moderately successful brand. That’s just standard playbook stuff.
Start a business at a loss by offering a deal too good to be true, ex: Disney+ for $1 a month, then pull consumers away and build your name, then price creep.
Plus as others have mentioned it’s either stolen, or diluted. No way they’re offering fuel at the same quality (detergent gasoline) as you’d get at like Shell, Mobile, or Chevron.
They are moving in and taking over the economy wholesale, it is clear as day, and we are letting them do precisely that.
It is a bona fide rape of modern civilization and democracy. We are looking at centuries of the dark ages coming at us full speed, if we can even survive that long.
Not the same. Buying the gas is spending some conservative’s money. You’re not going to be a blip on the radar of amazon, and spending a little less money at these “Freedom” BS stations that will likely last a couple weeks with trump’s fruitfly-length attention span is not gonna kill “gas station main street” the way massive big box and online retailers did.
All that said, if these stations start to get taxpayer money or grow artificially thanks to some trump pump-and-dump (hah, pump…gas…get it? Anyway…) screw ‘em.
