Freedom Fuel Network: Trump uses fascism and socialism to fix oil crisis he created
Earlier this week, Donald Trump took his love of fascism and mixed it with a healthy dose of socialism when he rolled out something he’s calling the “Freedom Fuel Network,” a scheme where he is branding gas stations and setting the price of a gallon of gas in a weak attempt to fix the oil and energy crisis he created in the first place when he went to war with Iran.
Of course, Trump found a way to make it about himself, as he always does, when he promised to sell a gallon of gasoline for $3.47 a gallon — the “47” being an homage to his magnanimous self:
You know, when New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani proposed the creation of a few city-run grocery stores, Donald Trump and his Republican cheerleaders went nuts screaming about Democratic Socialism and Communism. But when the mango messiah slaps a logo on gas pumps and begins dictating fuel costs, well… THAT’S FREEDOM!!
Leaving aside the fact that $3.47 a gallon isn’t anywhere near the “below $2 a gallon” he promised when he told us about the “economic boom” he would be bringing, the Freedom Fuel price is still over a dollar a gallon higher than it was when he started his war.
Trump’s embrace of fascism and socialism to create the Freedom Fuel Network as the cure to the ills he has created with the oil and energy industry has been a bipartisan affair for many years.
The year was 2008. America was in the early stages of the Great Recession caused by years of repeated government interference with the free-market “economy” in areas like real estate, banking, and energy, along with excessive government spending in the form of bailouts and stimulus packages in a vain attempt to fix the self-inflicted problem.
Leading up to the Great Recession, government interference had caused oil and gas prices to skyrocket, so congressional hearings were held with oil company executives in an attempt to pass the blame over to them. During these hearings, Rep. Maxine Waters threatened to socialize (nationalize) the oil industry and place them under government control.
“And guess what this member would be all about? This member would be all about socializing — er, uh. [Pauses for several moments] …. would be about … [pause] … basically … taking over, and the government running all of your companies.”
Fast forward to 2020. America is in the early stages of another Great Recession caused by Trump’s tariffs and trade wars and another round of government interference with the free market economy when Trump and Congress shut it down in response to COVID-19 and then added another round of excessive government spending in the form of bailouts and stimulus packages in an attempt to fix the self-inflicted problem.
Just as it was in 2008, the oil and gas industry suffered with fluctuating prices at the pump, so Trump announced a package of emergency loans to prop up the oil industry that would accomplish something Maxine waters only threatened to do — giving government ownership of energy companies.
The program, designed by then-Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette and then-Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, required that government receive an equity position from participating companies. American Exploration and Production Council CEO Anne Bradbury identified Trump’s fascist ambitions at the time when she told the Washington Examiner, “We have concerns with a lending program that gives the government a stake in independent oil and gas companies or moves our industry toward nationalization.”
But that’s nothing compared to the fascism and socialism we are witnessing under Trump 2.0.
In June 2025, Trump waged his first war against Iran — with the support of Republicans and “conservatives” in the media — when he allegedly “obliterated” their nuclear program. Then, as now, oil companies felt the heat of an uncertain energy market. Then, as now, Trump saw this as an opportunity to seize a more control. In response to expected higher energy prices, Trump warned oil companies not to raise oil prices, and he further promised that he’d be watching them to make sure they comply with his dictate:
Now in it up to his elbows with his second war against Iran to destroy their nuclear program for the second time, Trump — sounding for all the world like fascist/socialist ready to nationalize the industry — is issuing a stronger threat against oil companies for high prices at the pump after a temporary period of lower oil prices:
As I make clear in my book, The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty, the road to tyranny America finds herself on has been under construction by both Republicans and Democrats for many years, and the current oil/energy policies being bandied about to deal with high gas prices proves it.
In the end, Donald Trump and his embrace of fascism is no different than the Democratic Socialism embraced by leftists like Bernie Sanders. As Ayn Rand once wrote, the only difference is timing:
The essential characteristic of socialism is the denial of individual property rights; under socialism, the right to property (which is the right of use and disposal) is vested in “society as a whole,” i.e., in the collective, with production and distribution controlled by the state, i.e., by the government.
Socialism may be established by force, as in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics—or by vote, as in Nazi (National Socialist) Germany.
Theoretically, the differences [between socialism and fascism] are superficial; practically, they are only a matter of time. The basic principle, in all cases, is the same. (Emphasis mine)
The Corporate Finance Institute defines nationalization as “the process in which a country or a state takes control of a specific company or industry. With nationalization, control that once resided within a corporation now lies with the government.” In other words, the nationalist ideology embraced by Trump and the Republican Party is fascist AND socialist depending on the degree of government control involved. The Freedom Fuel Network is no exception to the rule.
David Leach is the owner of the Strident Conservative and the author of The New Axis of Evil: Exposing the Bipartisan War on Liberty. He holds people of every political stripe accountable for their failure to uphold conservative values, and he promotes those values instead of political parties.
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