President Trump accused oil companies of possibly gouging consumers at the pump, declaring gasoline should be at $2.25 per gallon and threatening investigations, while Treasury Secretary Bessent followed up by warning gas retailers to be good actors especially during America’s 250th anniversary because the administration is watching.
Stephen Moore, economist and author of The Trump Economic Miracle and the Plan to Unleash Prosperity Again, joined Dan Proft on Chicago’s Morning Answer on Independence Day to push back on the price gouging claims, celebrate the big beautiful bill’s one-year anniversary, and warn about the continued spread of democratic socialist candidates into purple states.
On gas prices, Moore agreed with Proft’s characterization that the gouging rhetoric is economically illiterate and said markets will bring prices down without government threats. He noted a friend in El Paso currently paying under three dollars a gallon and said prices are declining, just not as quickly as the president would like. He said there is no collusion among tens of thousands of independent gas stations across the country and that both sides engage in this kind of demagoguery, bashing companies for being evil and raising prices when the market is simply functioning as markets do. Proft made the point that defending price-setting rhetoric from Republicans undermines the ability to criticize Democrats like Chris Murphy who want to set the national minimum wage at twenty-five dollars. If the government is going to decree where gas prices should be, it has forfeited the philosophical ground to oppose commissars setting wages and prices for everything else.
On the economy broadly, Moore said he is very bullish. The Dow hit an all-time high of 52,500 the previous day, the big beautiful bill signed one year ago is saving the average family between $2,500 and $4,000 annually, and the deregulation numbers continue to set records. He cited the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s mid-year report showing the Trump administration on track to issue fewer than 3,000 final rules this year, a level of regulatory restraint that has only occurred twice in American history, both times under Trump. He said small business owners consistently tell him that while taxes are painful, the regulatory burden is even worse, with many business owners unknowingly violating rules they do not even know exist.
On the AI revolution and data center debate, Moore said the most important question is not whether AI is coming, because it is already here, but whether the United States or China will win the race. He drew a direct parallel to the internet revolution of thirty years ago, when the United States came to dominate because the government got out of the way and nine of the ten greatest technology companies in the world emerged from that environment. He said the frustration with anti-data center sentiment is that the same people who cannot survive without their smartphones, which do not function without data centers, are opposing the construction of the infrastructure that makes their daily lives possible.
He endorsed Trump’s announced plan for a midterm convention in Dallas on September 9th and 10th, calling it a great idea to frame what Republicans are offering versus what DSA candidates are proposing. He said the accomplishments are substantial: crime rates down nationally, murder rates declining, illegal immigration cut to practically zero, significant tax relief, and historic deregulation. He said the convention provides an opportunity to present that record in contrast with the direction the Democratic Party is heading.
On that direction, Moore expressed genuine alarm at the continued spread of DSA-aligned candidates, noting that the phenomenon is no longer confined to deep blue urban districts. In Colorado, a purple state, four democratic socialist candidates won their primaries this cycle, including some who defeated incumbent Democrats on the grounds that those incumbents were too conservative. He said the movement is spreading like a virus and must be taken seriously, educated against, and ultimately extinguished.
He reacted with incredulity to New York City Mayor Mamdani’s invocation of Friedrich Hayek during a budget presentation, in which Mamdani quoted Hayek’s famous line that if socialists understood economics they would not be socialists, and then argued that his budget proves socialists understand economics just as well as the capitalists who preceded him. Moore noted that Mamdani’s budget required an eight billion dollar state bailout to make the numbers work, which is not exactly a demonstration of economic competence. He also cited reporting that rent payment rates in New York City have fallen by roughly forty percent, which he attributed to the entirely predictable incentive effect of telling people they do not have to pay their rent. He closed with the observation that if people think things are expensive now, they should wait until everything is free.