Gas prices are running approximately $4.10 per gallon nationally, with blue states like California pushing the average significantly higher. An analysis from Stephen Moore‘s Unleash Prosperity organization shows that in real inflation-adjusted terms, gas prices under the current Trump administration are averaging $3.32 per gallon, slightly above Trump’s first term average of $3.25, considerably below Obama’s $4.30 average, and fifty cents below Biden’s $3.88 average. Moore joined Dan Proft on Chicago’s Morning Answer to acknowledge that the historical context, while accurate, is a difficult argument to make to consumers who are living in the moment and remember that prices were supposed to go down when Trump took office, not up.
Moore said the more direct answer to the gas price problem is resolving the Middle East situation and expanding oil supply, and that the counterfactual worth keeping in mind is that under Biden’s zero fossil fuels agenda, the United States would probably be paying approximately ten dollars per gallon right now. He noted that fossil fuels still account for eighty percent of American energy production despite hundreds of billions of dollars spent promoting wind and solar, which he said remains trivial to actual energy output. He said the idea that a thirty trillion dollar economy could be powered by windmills and solar panels was insane, and that there is not a single country in the world where wind and solar constitute a major energy source. He noted that France, which publicly decries fossil fuels, gets the majority of its energy from nuclear power and obtains its oil and gas substantially from Russia, which it also publicly decries.
On the broader climate spending record, Moore said an estimated fifteen trillion dollars has been spent by industrialized nations on climate change mitigation over the approximately twenty-five years since Al Gore’s book launched the modern climate alarm movement, and that this investment has not changed the global temperature by one-tenth of a degree. He called it probably the biggest fraud in the history of humanity in terms of money spent with zero measurable effect, and said the same fifteen trillion could have cured cancer and saved millions of lives.
On benefits fraud, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins sent letters to every governor asking states to partner with the federal government on auditing the food stamp program, noting that no one had ever held states accountable for how federal food stamp dollars are spent. The red states that complied found two hundred thousand dead people receiving food stamps and half a million people receiving duplicate benefits, and that was in the data from states that cooperated. Blue states including California, Illinois, New York, and others refused to provide their data and are now in litigation trying to prevent the federal government from cutting off their funding until they comply. Moore said the reason blue states are not cooperating is that they want the fraud, viewing federal program dollars as free money that circulates through their state economies regardless of whether recipients are legitimate. He said if the federal government eliminated fraudulent payments across all programs the deficit could be cut in half, and returned to the California Medicaid program reimbursing for exorcisms and tribal healing dances as an illustration of how thoroughly the concept of legitimate program spending has been abandoned in some states.
On the HUD loophole allowing households with illegal immigrants to access federally subsidized housing without any eligibility verification, Secretary Turner is moving to close an arrangement that HUD data shows has placed approximately 24,000 illegal immigrants in federally subsidized units, with roughly 200,000 total tenants who have not proven eligibility for the assistance they are receiving. Moore said the pattern is identical to the food stamp situation: states and local governments see federal housing dollars as a revenue stream with no accountability obligation attached.
On Trump’s decision to raise tariffs from ten to twelve and a half percent on approximately sixty countries accused of using forced labor, Moore said he does not like tariffs even when the underlying concern is legitimate. He said the tariffs have had a net negative effect on the economy and contributed somewhat to inflation, partially offset by the tax cuts. He said tariffs can be useful as a negotiating tool to bring other countries’ trade barriers down, and Trump has achieved some of that, but they are not a good instrument for building industrial investment, and current tariffs on steel, aluminum, and fertilizer are producing shortages of exactly those materials, which will drive prices higher. He noted that fertilizer is among the goods caught up in the strait disruption, adding pressure on American farmers already dealing with the broader supply chain dislocations from the Iran campaign.
He closed with an editorial comment on the Bears’ move to Hammond, expressing genuine distress at the prospect of Indiana having two NFL franchises while Illinois has zero, calling it a self-explanatory illustration of red state versus blue state governance that somehow remains unpersuasive to a majority of the Illinois electorate.