'Why are gas prices at record levels?': Ted Lieu questions White House's 'Uno cards' post

Rep. Ted Lieu hit out at the White House on Sunday as it shared a picture of President Donald Trump holding Uno cards. The text overlay read, "I have all the cards." Lieu criticized the post, questioning the administration about gas prices. "Oh wait, in Uno you win by not having any cards. Your social media person really should get fired," he quipped.

While the Trump administration had brought the average price of gas down to under $3 a gallon in February, the war in Iran has seen it rise steeply. As of Sunday, the national average stood at $4.446, as per a report in NPR. A week ago, it was $4.099. Notably, gas prices in the country were at their highest since July 2022. Since the price increase was made public, the Trump administration has come under severe criticism from Democratic lawmakers.

In an interview on MS Now, Rep. Robert Garcia claimed that gas prices in California were above $6 a gallon, which made life difficult for residents. "Families cannot afford to get to work. They are trying to get their kids to the soccer game, to the softball game, and every single dollar spent at the gas pump is less money in the pocket of working families," he said. Garcia blamed the war in Iran and tax breaks for billionaires as the reasons behind such high prices and said that the focus needed to be on affordability.

Republican Representative John Rose was asked about the rising prices of gas in a Newsmax interview. He urged Americans to exercise patience as he spoke about how unemployment in the country was the lowest it had been since he was "four years old." “We have a robust economy,” he said. "Yes, gas prices are high right now, but that is because the President correctly decided that we had to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon to protect the future of our own country and to protect the safety and security of the world…so we'll have to endure a little pain here."

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, too, has said that the spike in gas prices is a "temporary aberration" and predicted prices will go down in a matter of weeks. "We are cognizant that this short-term blip up in prices is affecting the American people, but I am also confident on the other side of this that prices are going to come down very quickly," he explained.

The U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, in a bid to control the gas price rise due to the war in Iran, released 17.5 million barrels of crude oil between March 20 and April 24. On Sunday, seven countries in the OPEC+ group agreed to increase production by 188,000 barrels per day from June in order to keep the market stable. The conflict, however, has shown little sign of resolving, with the U.S. announcing 'Operation Project Freedom', to secure the safe passage of merchant ships from the Strait of Hormuz.