President Donald Trump’s campaign promise of U.S. “energy dominance” is running into a flood of OPEC crude oil — a surge of fuel production pushed by the Saudi leaders greeting him during his Mideast trip this week.
But don’t expect Trump to complain about the cartel’s plan to raise output by nearly a million barrels per day in June, according to three people familiar with the trip who were granted anonymity to describe private discussions.
The planned production surge has contributed to a sharp drop in oil prices this year, bringing economic pain to U.S. petroleum companies and undermining Trump’s pledges of a huge increase in American energy production. But it also makes it easier for Trump to fulfill a second crucial but contradictory promise — big cuts in energy prices for the inflation-weary voters who helped return him to the White House.
The dynamic is yet another example of how external forces, including the Saudis’ commanding role in the world’s oil markets, continue to complicate Trump’s frequent calls for a new American “golden age.”
