Trump accuses 'OPEC monopoly' of pushing oil prices higher, and says 'they must get oil prices down now!'

AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

President Donald Trump speaks in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, Friday, April 28, 2017, before signing an Executive Order directing the Interior Department to begin review of restrictive drilling policies for the outer-continental shelf. From left are, Vice President Mike Pence, Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, the president, Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross.

• President Donald Trump tweeted that oil prices are too high, and called for the "OPEC monopoly" to "get prices down!"
• Trump seems to have threatened to withdraw US military resources from the Middle East if OPEC members in the region don't work to lower prices.
• He has consistently complained that oil prices are too high.
• Oil drops as a result of the tweet. You can follow its price live at Markets Insider.

President Donald Trump on Thursday once again tweeted his belief that major oil producers in the Middle East are conspiring to keep oil prices high, seemingly threatening to withdraw military resources from the region if producers do not help to lower prices.

"We protect the countries of the Middle East, they would not be safe for very long without us, and yet they continue to push for higher and higher oil prices!" he said in an early morning tweet. "We will remember. The OPEC monopoly must get prices down now!"

Oil prices have increased from around $50 per barrel last September, to more than $70 per barrel today, with a rebalancing of the supply and demand disparity in the market, as well as major weather and geopolitical events playing a part.

Trump's tweet pushed oil prices lower, with the price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil - the US benchmark - falling from $71.28 per barrel to a low of $70.86, a drop of around 0.58%. Oil remains is still up about 1.8% over the past week.

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Trump has consistently complained that oil prices are too high, following a significant uptick in prices which has been passed on at the pump to US drivers.

High gas prices can be an issue for voters, and Trump's attacks come just a couple of months ahead of US midterms, where analysts say rising prices could hurt Republicans. Prices at the pump hit four-year highs back in July.

For this year's April-September driving season, the EIA expects US regular gasoline retail prices to average $2.87 a gallon, up 19% from a year ago, mostly due to expectations of higher crude oil prices.

Trump's tweet comes about two months after a similar tweet in July, in which he also called OPEC a monopoly and tacitly threatened to withdraw US support.

"The OPEC Monopoly must remember that gas prices are up & they are doing little to help," he tweeted on July 5. "If anything, they are driving prices higher as the United States defends many of their members for very little $'s. This must be a two way street."

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