Fuel becomes the campaign issue
Some Republicans who spent months backing the war with Iran are now changing their tune, as gasoline and diesel prices climb and the party's November outlook darkens, The New York Times reported.
MarketWatch reported that fuel prices keep rising and that the trend is lifting Democrats' chances of winning both the House and the Senate. Democrats are campaigning on the cost of living, hoping to win over voters hit by inflation that they link to the war.
Trump weighs a diesel export ban
President Donald Trump has endorsed a ban on diesel exports, telling reporters that a decision is coming "fast, one way or the other". Washington's talk of restricting exports has already widened the gap between US crude futures and the global Brent benchmark, a signal that markets expect US refiners to process less crude if diesel output has to stay at home.
Inside the party, the mood is not uniform. A POLITICO poll found that many of Trump's most loyal supporters do not believe he has an affordability problem, even as cost-of-living worries reinforce partisan divides and open a gap among Republicans.
The Fed's warning
Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland President Beth Hammack said she is concerned that persistently high inflation risks conditioning Americans to accept elevated prices as the norm, and added that the central bank cannot let that happen. Her comments land in the middle of an election campaign in which pump prices, not interest rates, dominate the conversation.