Gas Might Be 'A Little Bit Higher' By the Midterms, He Says Out Loud, On Television

You want to know what a man tells you when he thinks you aren’t listening? Watch what he says on Fox Business at seven in the morning.

Maria Bartiromo, who I will say has a nice voice for television, asked the President a real straightforward question. She said, Mr. President, you’ve got a Navy blockade in the Persian Gulf, twenty percent of the world’s oil moves through there, are folks going to see relief at the pump before the midterms. That was the question. That was what she asked.

And he said, and I am paraphrasing but only barely, he said it could be the same. Or maybe a little bit higher.

A little bit higher.

Honey, I filled up my Tercel yesterday and it was fifty-one dollars. Fifty-one dollars. For a Tercel. My husband’s pickup is over a hundred now and he drives a Ranger, not a King Ranch. So when the President of the United States goes on television and says, on camera, in front of God and the entire Cumulus Media audience, that gas prices could be a little bit higher by November, I do not know what the campaign slogan is going to be but I don’t think it’s going to fit on a hat.

You know what a politician who thinks he’s going to lose says? That. That right there. A politician who thinks he’s going to win says “prices are coming down, folks, tremendous prices, you won’t believe it.” A politician who knows the number isn’t coming down says “could be a little bit higher.”

He started a war. Then he blockaded the strait. Then he told the British to cough up fifty percent tariffs if they helped the other side. Then Iran told him no deal on the twenty-year nuclear suspension. Then he went on Fox and admitted, in the gentlest possible way, that the thing everyone has to put in their car to go to work is going to cost more.

All of this is happening at once. None of it is a surprise. You cannot park the United States Navy across the oil lane and be shocked when the price tag changes.

Kid at table four just ordered a grilled cheese and a water. Not a soda. A water. That’s what “a little bit higher” looks like from where I stand.

You want your coffee topped off? It’s still a dollar. For now.