Americans are paying more for their Christmas dinners, gifts and, most egregiously, energy due to "self-inflicted errors," according to former President Donald Trump on Newsmax.
"It's been very sad," Trump tells Mike Huckabee on Newsmax's one-hour special "Christmas in America," which premieres Wednesday Dec. 15 at 9 p.m. ET. "When you look, we were energy independent. And now, they're going to OPEC again and they're begging for oil.
"The gasoline price was $1.87, and now in California $7.50 a gallon, and it's going to follow that. And I said that during the debates. I said, 'Wait until you watch what they do to energy. What until you watch what they do with inflation.' Inflation is a killer – and so many other things.
"It's very sad to see what's happening."
It did not have to be this way, either, because it is all the errors of President Joe Biden and his scuffling administration, Trump added to Huckabee.
"We're going through a very bad time and they're all self-inflicted errors," he said. "These are errors which should never have happened."
This Christmas versus last, America has gone from giving to receiving, Trump lamented.
"With energy, as an example, we weren't doing well at all; we were doing poorly," Trump tells Huckabee. "I got in and we were bigger than Russia, bigger than Saudi Arabia and, within one year, we would have been bigger than both put together.
"And now we're begging them for energy. We have more than they do."
Trump pointed to his administration approving drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in helping make America energy independent, but the Biden administration unwinding that landmark move.
"If you look at ANWR in Alaska, Ronald Reagan tried to get it approved, couldn't do it – to president could do it," Trump tells Huckabee. "I got it done. And the Biden group just ended it.
"This is potentially bigger than Saudi Arabia in Alaska. The people in Alaska suffered over this. They have been trying to get it for decades and I got it done, totally done, ready to start, and they just ended it.
"And then we go to Russia, Saudi Arabia, we go to OPEC for help. We're asking them for help.
"And, by the way, they're turning us down, incredibly. It's sad."
Trump concluded with some optimism for the future, though, promising a brighter future in the United States.
"But our country will survive it, and I really believe we're going to be greater than ever before," Trump tells Huckabee.
"We will be bigger and better than ever before. Good things will happen."
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Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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