President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would call on Saudi Arabia and OPEC to lower oil prices, claiming that the war in Ukraine would end if prices dropped.
“I am also going to ask Saudi Arabia and OPEC to bring down the cost of oil,” Trump said in a virtual appearance at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. “You got to bring it down. … If the price came down, the Russia-Ukraine war would end immediately.”
“They’re very responsible, actually, to a certain extent, for what’s taking place. Millions of lives are being lost,” Trump added.
U.S. crude oil fell 85 cents, or 1.13%, to $74.59 per barrel, and the global benchmark Brent dropped 73 cents, or 0.92%, to $78.27 per barrel, according to CNBC.
The Russian government gains massive revenues from oil exports, which have helped fund its war in Ukraine. The U.S. government, under former President Joe Biden, sought to bring down Russia’s oil revenues through sanctions and a novel price cap on Russian oil, but those efforts mostly failed to crimp Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war funding.
Most recently, OPEC+, which includes the members of the oil-producing cartel and non-member Russia, as well as other countries, have cut production by 2.2 million barrels per day in recent months in an effort to prop up prices.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
The group decided last month it would start easing oil output in April. The bloc agreed to have production cuts fully recovered by September 2026. At the time, the bloc said in a statement that the goal of the cuts was to continue supporting “the stability and balance of the oil markets.”
The Biden administration, which was undermined politically by soaring energy and gasoline prices, tried to improve relations with Saudi Arabia to help lower prices. Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia in 2022 to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and his administration asked the kingdom to delay output hikes before the 2022 midterm elections. When Saudi Arabia declined to cut production, Biden vowed “consequences.”