---
title: "Trump Says He Has Directed DOJ to Examine Oil Companies Over Pump Prices"
description: "President Trump said he has instructed the Justice Department to look into why gasoline prices at the pump have not fallen as quickly as crude oil, accusing oil companies of 'gouging' consumers. The Justice Department has not publicly confirmed any investigation."
category: "Economy"
category_url: https://boursel.com/category/economy
author: "Priya Venkatesan"
published: 2026-06-24T05:34:00.000Z
updated: 2026-06-24T05:34:00.000Z
canonical: https://boursel.com/article/trump-doj-oil-companies-fuel-prices
tags: ["trump", "department-of-justice", "oil", "gasoline-prices", "crude-oil"]
---
# Trump Says He Has Directed DOJ to Examine Oil Companies Over Pump Prices

President Trump said he has instructed the Justice Department to look into why gasoline prices at the pump have not fallen as quickly as crude oil, accusing oil companies of 'gouging' consumers. The Justice Department has not publicly confirmed any investigation.

President Trump said on June 24 that he has directed the Justice Department to scrutinize oil companies over gasoline prices, arguing that pump prices have not dropped in step with a recent slide in crude oil.

In a social media post, Trump wrote that "the big Oil Companies are not dropping their price at the pump commensurate with the sharply lower prices they are paying for Oil," said customers are being "gouged," and added that he had "instructed the DOJ to immediately start looking into this," according to accounts of the post reported by [Investing.com](https://www.investing.com/news/economy-news/trump-says-doj-to-probe-oil-companies-over-high-fuel-prices-4757331).

The statement is a presidential directive, not a confirmed enforcement action. As of this writing, the Justice Department had not publicly announced or confirmed an investigation, and the scope, legal theory and targets of any review remain undocumented. It is also unclear whether Trump's complaint points toward a price-gouging inquiry or an antitrust case. Price gouging generally means charging excessive prices during an emergency; antitrust collusion refers to competitors coordinating prices. The two require different evidence and are policed under different laws.

## The crude-versus-pump gap

Trump's complaint follows a sharp pullback in oil tied to easing tensions with Iran. A U.S.-Iran memorandum of understanding aimed at winding down the conflict and reopening shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has pushed benchmark prices down from the highs reached during the war. On June 24, Brent crude traded under about $77 a barrel and U.S. West Texas Intermediate under roughly $73, both lower on the day, while U.S. gasoline futures were quoted near $2.93 a gallon, [according to figures cited by Investing.com](https://www.investing.com/news/economy-news/trump-says-doj-to-probe-oil-companies-over-high-fuel-prices-4757331).

That retail prices lag falling crude is a long-documented pattern economists call asymmetric pass-through, or more colorfully "rockets and feathers": pump prices tend to rise quickly when crude climbs but ease slowly when it falls. Researchers attribute the lag mostly to non-criminal factors, including inventory timing — the fuel in a station's tanks was refined from crude bought weeks earlier — and consumer behavior, as drivers react less to falling prices than to rising ones, [the St. Louis Fed has noted](https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/october-2014/rockets-and-feathers-why-dont-gasoline-prices-always-move-in-sync-with-oil-prices). Economists add that seller market power can contribute too, but that proving deliberate gouging or collusion is difficult.

## Industry and market context

The American Petroleum Institute, the main U.S. oil-and-gas trade group, had not issued a documented response specific to Trump's June 24 statement at the time of writing. Integrated majors such as Chevron and Exxon Mobil and refiners including Marathon Petroleum, Phillips 66 and Valero are the companies analysts flag as most exposed to such political pressure, though none had publicly commented.

Oil prices extended their decline on the day of Trump's remarks. Whether the Justice Department takes any formal step remains unconfirmed — and, as the price data show, a gap between crude and pump prices is not by itself evidence of wrongdoing.