President Donald Trump used his own social media platform, Truth Social, to announce the launch of a new business with locations from Camp Hill in central Pennsylvania into New Jersey.
“On July 3rd, the Freedom Fuel Network will be lowering gas prices at 25 “FREEDOM FUEL” Stations across the Greater Philadelphia Area. This Retailer is taking the lead, and others should follow,” Trump wrote.
The White House put out a promotional video on Tuesday, saying the stations are “leading the charge to lower gas prices,” and that the initial pump price of $3.47 was in honor of the 47th president, Trump.
The Freedom Fuel Network increased its prices in Camp Hill and several other locations to $3.57 after two days. That’s still 42 cents cheaper than the state average, according to data from AAA.
“That’s a very big difference, but as a promotion in the short run, I don’t think that’s an unreasonable difference,” said Severin Borenstein, a business professor at the University of California at Berkeley who studies energy markets.
For the amount of attention the company has received due to Trump’s posting and media coverage, the lower gas prices are probably acting as a relatively inexpensive marketing effort, Borenstein said.
The lower prices are even likely to do what Trump said it would do — lower gas prices at other retailers. The impact likely won’t last long and won’t be seen more than a mile or two from the Freedom Fuel Network stations, Borenstein said. They’re also not likely to save individual consumers a significant amount of money in the long run.
Politically, the stunt is unlikely to help Trump or Republicans at the polls for this fall’s midterm elections, said Berwood Yost, who leads public opinion research at Franklin & Marshall College. In the college’s most recent poll, voters trusted Democrats more than Republicans on the economy, and listed pocketbook problems as the most important issue.
“The gas may be cheaper than other outlets, but it is still much higher than in recent memory and the perceptions of the change in the cost is really what matters,” Yost said. “It is really hard for a president to separate himself from inflation that happens during his time in office.”
The average retail price for a gallon of gas is up 80 cents per gallon since the start of the Iran war at the end of February.
There’s also the political marketing challenge of getting customers to connect a slightly lower fuel price at a small handful of gas stations to the president. None of the customers WITF spoke with made that leap.
“ I’m a Trump supporter, but no, I don’t come with that particular thought in mind, that this is a Trump gas station or whatever,” said Ronald Spuhler.
Michelle Clouster said the Camp Hill gas station has been her preferred spot to fill up for a long time.
“It doesn’t have anything to do with the Freedom Fuel or anything,” she said, and added, “I’m not a political person, so it doesn’t really matter to me.”
Clouser said even before the branding change, that station had the best prices in the area.
Kenneth Branoff said he doesn’t agree with the war in Iran, but since he’s retired and has a fuel-efficient car, he’s not very affected. Now that Freedom Fuel raised its prices, they’re not much different than other nearby stations, he said, a claim backed up by a search on GasBuddy.com. He dislikes Trump, but also simply decided not to vote in 2024 rather than support the Democrats.
“ I probably won’t vote no more in my life anymore, because I just don’t like the government,” Branoff said.
Unknown ownership, smaller margins
Freedom Fuel Network, which did not respond to questions for this story, has not made its ownership public. The company incorporated in Delaware in June, but it does not come up in business searches in Pennsylvania or New Jersey. Per Pennsylvania’s rules, a company does not have to register to do business if it is selling through independent contractors.
In an attempt to discover who owns Freedom Fuel Network and earned the support of Trump and the White House, WITF sent questions to Pennsylvania’s departments of state, revenue and environmental quality, all of which have reporting requirements for businesses operating in the state or selling liquid fuels, but has not received responses as of publication.
For now, Freedom Fuel Network is choosing to make less money. In the gas markets, retail gas prices move slower than crude and wholesale costs, Borenstein said. When crude and wholesale costs go up, gas stations operate on smaller margins. But when crude and wholesale costs go down, gas stations make back their profits when pump prices take longer to fall.
Crude and wholesale oil costs jumped when Trump decided to go to war with Iran. Costs started to fall again when the United States and Iran announced a ceasefire last month, making it an economically opportune time for the Freedom Fuel Network to launch.
“They’re doing this at a time when there is a bigger margin there to cut back,” Borenstein said. “They probably are not losing money on it, they’re just cutting their margin much faster than other retail stations are.”
That’s how the market has worked for decades, Borenstein said. One gas station chain choosing to operate at smaller profit margins won’t change the system.
But politicians are railing against high prices. Back in March, state Reps. Joe Ciresi, D-Montgomery, and Jim Haddock, D-Lackawanna/Luzerne, called for a state review of whether companies were illegally raising prices too high, taking advantage of the uncertainty caused by the Iran War.
In the last month, Trump has been making similar claims. On July 3, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission asked state attorneys general to investigate gas companies for violating consumer protection laws.
But Pennsylvania law only allows the Office of Attorney General to investigate price gouging during a declared state of emergency.