Monday, August 10, 2026

Pain in the gas: Trump’s ‘Freedom Fuel’ ploy is still shady as hell

Pain in the gas: Trump’s ‘Freedom Fuel’ ploy is still shady as hell

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/10/800081303/business-and-economy/pain-in-the-gas-trumps-freedom-fuel-ploy-is-still-shady-as-hell/ 

Pain in the gas: Trump’s ‘Freedom Fuel’ ploy is still shady as hell

by Lisa Needham
Staff
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A flag flies at Freedom Fuel Network gas station in Dresher, Pa., Friday, July 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
A flag flies at a Freedom Fuel Network gas station in Dresher, Pennsylvania, on July 10.AP

Unless you’re a billionaire, a Trump crony, or both, President Donald Trump’s economy sucks. 

But he has no interest in any policies that would actually fix that, so he’s resorted to increasingly pathetic, desperate measures, like propping up a couple dozen East Coast gas stations with artificially low prices. But as that stopgap measure stretches on, we’re learning more and more about the people behind it, and you will not be surprised to learn that they also suck. 

Shamikh Kazmi, who manages at least six of the “Freedom Fuel” gas stations that Trump has publicly crowed about, seems to be your garden-variety Trumpy dude, one who believes that regulations and laws don’t apply to him at all. He’s exactly the sort of businessman you expect to get in bed with Donald Trump. 

Before Trump took to pimping the Freedom Fuel network in July, Kazmi had racked up 196 penalties in New Jersey alone. In May, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection slapped 17 stations managed by Kazmi and owned by “Blue Owl,” some sort of asset manager, with $429,000 in penalties. 

A cartoon by Clay Bennett of Mr. Peanut holding up a gun to someone
Clay Bennett/Tribune Content Agency

Kazmi didn’t just manage to land an impressively high fine. He also seems to be capable of committing a genuinely wide variety of misdeeds. Think of Kazmi as sort of a Renaissance man of scuzz. He’s had issues with underground fuel storage, he’s submitted false information to the state to register that fuel storage, and, unsurprisingly, he has a grip of air pollution violations.

Honestly, these days, it’s probably a requirement to be a massive polluter to do any business with the Trump administration.

Politico got its mitts on an 88-page administrative order detailing Kazmi’s comprehensive scumminess, and found that these were serious penalties. One of Kazmi’s stations was banned from getting gas deliveries entirely because Kazmi or Blue Owl or who-the-hell-ever had never even registered the underground storage tank. Regulators literally sealed the gas delivery ports, but these guys just cut the seal so the tanks could be filled anyway. 

Kazmi also got in trouble for failing to pay about $700,000 in rent on gas stations in Florida. Oh, and let’s not forget that 7-Eleven landed a $380,000 judgment against him a couple years ago after one of their franchises he operated in New Jersey included such terrific, desirable, consumer-friendly things like a rodent infestation and what was euphemistically described as “trash issues.” Yum! 

Meanwhile, Kazmi and the other cronies currently shilling lower Freedom Fuel prices continue to sell gas at lower costs, but honestly, not nearly as low as Trump was hyping at the start. The stations have settled in around $3.89 per gallon, which is indeed 25 cents or so below other surrounding stations in the area, but not the $3.47 we all had to pretend was so exciting because it got Trump excited to have “47” in the price.

Nobody really knows how the Freedom Fuel network is currently keeping prices artificially low, but everyone knows it can’t really go on, because there is no one weird trick where gas prices can just be lower because Trump wants them to be lower. These stations could be eating as much as $250,000 per month, each, in losses. 

Related | The hidden cost of Trump’s ‘Freedom Fuel’ gimmick

Everyone also knows that this is a couple dozen gas stations in just a few states. It isn’t meaningful or relevant to the vast majority of Americans just trying to drive their cars to work and buy groceries and keep the lights on.

Trump’s efforts to fix grocery prices are perhaps even more pathetic, though. In that instance, he’s taken to just taking credit whenever a grocery store chain lowers prices, as if they’ve done so at his behest.

Likely because the man has never paid for groceries in his life, Trump seems to misunderstand two things here. First, cutting prices on hundreds of items at a time is not really all that uncommon. Giant Eagle, one of Trump’s alleged triumphs, for example, lowered costs on roughly the same 300 items this summer as it did in September 2025.

Second, and more to the point: Grocery stores keep cutting prices on hundreds of items to get people in the door because grocery prices are through the roof. The Department of Agriculture’s own forecast makes clear that isn’t expected to change any time soon and will stretch into 2027. 

Trump sees stores doing these sorts of loss leaders as somehow indicative that his economy is roaring along, but it’s actually proof that he doesn’t understand how the economy works at all. Hell, he doesn’t even understand how basic math works, but he’ll continue this sort of nonsense to try to limp through until the midterms. 

Meanwhile, in the real world, everything costs more, everyone’s job is fragile, and the only people making money are doing so by cutting deals with the most corrupt president ever.

We'll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.

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  1. Comment by Harvey Manfrenjensenden.

    "Nobody really knows how the Freedom Fuel network is currently keeping prices artificially low,"

    About a week ago, I read somewhere that the stations are simply selling stolen fuel. (Can't find the link; sorry)

    I hear there's a good margin on that.

  2. Comment by Carbon.

    They never pass up a chance to defile the word "freedom," do they? It's always used to label something that turns out to be some horrible scam that hurts, or misleads, regular people. It's like a robber going into a bank and announcing: "This is a Freedom!"

  3. Comment by Swissman.

    Incroyable, je ne m'étonne plus que ce sordide individu, ce super-président, ce grandiose idiot aie fait plusieurs fois faillite. Que dit-on des gens qui font toujours la même chose tout en espérant des résultat différents.

  4. Comment by annieli.

    A bridge too far, regardless. Trump did better with a handful of unidentified stations briefly offering low prices among 150,000 as a bit in his speeches.

    "But he has no interest in any policies that would actually fix that, so he’s resorted to increasingly pathetic, desperate measures, like propping up a couple dozen East Coast gas stations with artificially low prices. "

    • Reply by Spancos.

      States likely chosen due to pliant state legislatures and manipulable vote counting methods. How can you lose a state when you’re corruptly throwing money at it? Just point to freedom fuel sales as proof that the people love Dear Leader and eleventy thousand votes isn’t much of an ask.

  5. Comment by StanleyYelnats dotcom.

    Trump has been in the White House for 14 months, and during that time the cumulative total is 150,000 jobs. In the last 14 months of Joe Biden’s presidency, by contrast, the American economy added 1.74 million jobs.

    ms now

    Trump jobs lost argument

    • Reply by BlueStar99.

      ??? Trump has been in the White House for nearly 19 months now.

  6. Comment by MessagingMatters.

    I really never hear anything about it. Of course I want investigations if there are allegations that laws or rules aren't being followed, but otherwise I don't think this gimmick at best is a factor either for the economy or the midterms. Folks are paying high gas prices every day, and oil prices are up another 3.25% today at the time of this comment. The midterms are about 85 days away. After filling up, Republicans and Democrats alike get whomped again when they drive to the grocery store. At some point, reality and perceptions match up and get locked in.

  7. Comment by TRsCousin.

    Just for the record, Blue Owl is what’s called a private credit firm. Individuals or entities invest their money in funds managed by private credit firms. The money is then lent out to businesses who might find it hard, if not impossible, to obtain financing from a traditional commercial bank. In other words, to businesses that banks would likely consider too risky to lend to.

    Although private credit has been the darling of some investors, loan defaults are the highest they’ve been since 2021, leading to serious concerns about “loan health and investor returns “, according to a report in today’s Wall Street Journal

    • Reply by Spancos.

      There’s bound to be a circuitous route, a very tRumpy one, by which the right business model can operate at a loss and eventually walk free of the debt accrued under these conditions. Probably a huge write off or even an “emergency” bailout.

  8. Comment by UKPrince46.

    I expect an economic collapse in October, 2026, because it is historically what happens when shitty republicans are in charge (1929, 1881-2, 2007-8), especially when tariffs reign supreme and "fake news" abounds about how wonderful our economy is. If not then, it will occur in 2027 just in time for the trump republicans to blame the newly seated Democratic House and (I hope) senate.

    Because nothing says America like an ignorant population fed simplistic and superficial information by the news media. Economic collapse will pretty much have to happen for most of America (excluding MAGA nuts, the Billionaire Epstein class and their toadies/hangers-on who will still believe or are to rich to care) to face reality. Much like drought and forest fires in the western red states are teaching republicans about that "fake" climate change!

    • Reply by jimdintymoore.

      I recently moved to Arizona. In the Nextdoor.com comment section on the recent “pocket” fire near Sedona, as soon as someone brought up climate change as background causation — it’s been an extraordinarily hot and dry start to the year in central AZ — the typical replies appeared. “The climate is always changing.” “This has happened before without humans doing anything to cause it.” It probably won’t sink in for some of these folks until it’s much worse and too late.

  9. Comment by No Straight Lines.

    Electrify your transportation if possible.

    • Reply by No Straight Lines.

      Edit timed out.

      Drive the current ride more efficiently to get a free gas savings. Look up hypermiling.

    • Reply by Whatsnuts.

      My eleven year old pickup truck only has 23,000 miles on it. I don't drive un-necessarly and run my errands very efficiently.

    • Reply by brat city blue.

      My 2009 Mustang which I bought with 10,600 miles on it now has 62,000+ miles on it. I put on around 3400 miles a year. I rarely leave the county, and 3 to 4 times a year, I drive from Sheboygan to Road America, about 36-mile round trip, for 3 to 6 days. I normally drive 2 days a week. One day to my model railroad club and 1 day to do grocery shopping and run errands. I can go 3 to 4 weeks on a tank of gas. With the price of premium gas hovering around $5.00 per gallon, limiting my driving is a must.

  10. Comment by exlrrp.

    What isn't shady as hell about trump?

    • Reply by Spancos.

      Yarr! Freedom fuel isn’t Venezuelan booty that Cap’n Cankles promised. Make ‘im walk the plank! No! Keel-haul ‘im!

      Blast me scuppers, I can’t decide.

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