Donald Trump says he would back US diesel export ban

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Donald Trump has said he backs banning exports of diesel as soaring fuel prices squeeze American farmers and truckers and threaten to fuel further inflation ahead of November’s midterm elections.

“I’ve said let’s not send out the diesel,” the US president said following a bilateral meeting with Ukraine’s leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York on Tuesday. “I’ve called for it within my people. I’ve been talking about it.”

Trump’s support for the measure comes as Republican legislators representing rural regions, led by Iowa senator Chuck Grassley, call for action to curb a sharp rise in prices for the fuel that powers America’s agriculture and industrial sectors.

Treasury secretary Scott Bessent on Tuesday confirmed the administration was “examining . . . whether it’s feasible in terms of the overall refining capacity and whether a full or partial ban would work”.

The comments mark an abrupt U-turn from Washington, which had as recently as Monday insisted no such ban was on the table.

Interior secretary Doug Burgum last week said the administration “would consider an export ban if we thought that actually might lower prices, but that’s not the case”.

US diesel prices hit a fresh record of $6.53 a gallon on Tuesday, according to the AAA motoring group, as global supplies come under strain from wars in the Middle East and Ukraine. Prices have surged more than 70 per cent since the Iran war broke out in late February. They were below $3.70 a year ago.

“I’m glad President Trump’s on board,” said Tennessee Congress member Tim Burchett, who has put forward legislation to enact a ban. He said the president’s support would spur legislators to rally behind his bill.

“Everybody talks real tough, but when you see your [phone] light up and it’s Donald J Trump calling, they start listening,” Burchett told the FT.

Neither Trump nor Bessent specified whether any potential ban would be pursued through legislation or executive action. According to the Congressional Research Service, the president “has implied authority to announce and enforce a prohibition of exports through the Emergency Powers Act”.

A White House spokesperson declined to elaborate on the specifics of what was under consideration or the potential timing, referring the FT back to the president’s comments.

Underlining the strain the White House is facing from high fuel prices, Trump pressed Zelenskyy in a phone call on Sunday to halt drone attacks on Russian oil refineries.

An export ban would hit developing countries hard and send shockwaves across Europe, which is heavily reliant on imports of American petroleum products.

Data from research group Kpler shows US diesel exports to Europe have jumped by an average of almost 50 per cent since the Iran war began at the end of February, with volumes surpassing a record 506,000 barrels per day in August.

Matt Smith, an analyst at Kpler, said: “A US export ban would be bad news for Latin America, the leading destination of US diesel, but also for Europe and Africa, which have increasingly leaned on US supply amid the Middle East conflict.”

The US has not imposed controls on the export of refined oil products since the 1970s oil crises, although most crude exports were banned until 2015.

In 2022, as prices jumped following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, then-president Joe Biden asked the energy department to explore potential restrictions on exports of refined products but no action was ultimately taken.

The oil industry has vehemently opposed any limits on exports, arguing it would drive up prices for parts of the US that rely on imported fuel.

Following Trump’s comments, Mike Sommers, chief executive of the American Petroleum Institute, said restricting US energy exports would only compound the problem, exacerbating refining challenges and hurting consumers.

“The answer is more supply and more flexibility — not new restrictions that risk making a difficult situation worse,” he said.

But with six weeks until November’s midterm elections, many Republicans — especially in agriculture-focused districts — are under severe pressure from constituents to take meaningful action to curb fuel prices.

“The price of fuel is going to be it [in the midterms],” Burchett told the FT. “We’re going to own it, whether we deserve to or not. We’re the ones in power and it’s hard to escape that.”

Iowa Congress member Mariannette Miller-Meeks on Monday urged the White House to “stop the bleeding” by suspending exports. Senate majority leader John Thune has said he is open to considering a ban.

But not all Republicans would support the move. Nebraska Congress member Don Bacon told the FT that “normally government intervention makes for worse results”.

“The high prices will incentivise more diesel to be brought to markets, and prices will self-correct. We should also be pressuring Russia to stop its invasion,” he said.