If Biden Owned $3.37, Trump Gets the $4.45 Receipt
At the pump, partisan accounting arrives with a briefcase and a newsroom raccoon. The March 2022 $3.37 price gets the Ukraine and Russia-invasion footnote: global shock, not Biden’s doing. Then the May 2026 $4.45 price arrives tied to a Middle East escalation under Trump, and suddenly the same political machinery discovers presidential fingerprints in every drop.
Here is the fairness test: if presidents cannot personally steer every international oil shock, neither party gets to use context as a shield for its favorite administration and a hammer against the other. The pump is not an economist, but it has excellent memory. It prints Biden on one receipt, Trump on the next, and sends the bill to workers, families, and anyone whose paycheck is already being mugged in the parking lot. Global events may write the invoice; partisan media keeps choosing the cashier.