President Donald Trump’s plan to keep more diesel in the United States quickly ran into an economic warning from his own energy team, who insisted walling off exports could squeeze refineries and send other fuel prices higher.
The idea landed as diesel hit a record $6.53 a gallon Tuesday, with farmers, businesses and consumers already facing prices far above last year’s levels.
Trump raised the possibility while taking questions Tuesday at the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
“I’ve said let’s not send out the diesel. We make a lot of diesel,” Trump said. “I’ve called for it within my people. I’ve been talking about it.”
Standing with Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent framed the question around whether the country’s refinery network could handle such a move.
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump says he will likely implement an EXPORT BAN on DIESEL FUEL imminently
This would be a HUGE relief for our farmers, who are STRUGGLING with increasing diesel prices, which is a result of refineries being blown up in the Russia-Ukraine War
US… pic.twitter.com/PrNLBcoDgs
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) September 22, 2026
Bessent said the administration was reviewing whether an export ban was “feasible in terms of the overall refining capacity” and whether “a full or partial ban would work.”
A day later, Energy Secretary Chris Wright signaled that a sweeping cutoff was not the path the administration planned to take.
“The blunt tool of banning diesel exports definitely doesn’t work,” Wright told Reuters.
🎓Learn how Marxist ideas shaped modern culture and how to challenge them with Hillsdale College’s free course! 🎓 Explore the history and impact of Marxism in America ➡️➡️➡️ TAKE THE FREE COURSE NOW!!! 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
Wright’s objection came down to the way refineries run. Plants that produce diesel also make gasoline and jet fuel, so a storage crunch for diesel could force broader slowdowns across the system.
“We’re the largest diesel exporter in the world, but that same refinery that produces diesel also produces gasoline and jet fuel,” Wright stated. “So, if you can’t export the diesel that comes out of our refineries when you run out of places to store it, and you have to reduce U.S. refining, which would put upward pressure on gasoline prices and jet fuel prices.”
The Department of Energy told Reuters that Wright remained in step with Trump’s larger push to lower energy costs.
“The Secretary remains fully aligned with the President in exploring all available options to lower energy prices,” the department said.
A White House official gave Reuters a similar message, saying Trump “wants to see gas prices at the pump fall and is evaluating all the options on the table.”
Politico, citing five people versed with the talks, said officials were still sorting through how the legal process for a potential diesel export ban would work.
The pushback from inside the administration extended beyond Wright. Bessent and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum also opposed a total ban, Politico reported.
Burgum had warned last week that countries selling fuel to the United States could answer back if Washington blocked diesel exports, potentially hurting states such as California, according to Politico.
The pressure for action had built after Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) urged Trump to respond to diesel costs hurting farmers, GOP Senate candidate Mike Rogers argued that “American energy should provide relief to American families first.”
The United States has not banned diesel exports since 2015, when a previous restriction was lifted under former President Barack Obama.
The fight over diesel has sharpened because pump prices and global crude prices are moving in different directions.
The national diesel average sat at $6.52 on Wednesday after falling one cent overnight, compared with $3.69 a year earlier, according to the American Automobile Association.
Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, touched $97.36 a barrel Tuesday, its lowest mark since Sept. 8, then traded above $100 Wednesday morning, Reuters reported.
Those price pressures have become a political problem ahead of November’s midterm elections as the Iran war enters its eighth month and oil shipping routes remain blocked or interrupted by conflict.
More than 30 business, energy and manufacturing groups sent Trump a Wednesday letter urging him not to restrict diesel exports or other U.S. energy sales abroad.
“Export bans would lead to less fuel production, tighter supplies, and rising costs for American families, farmers, and truckers,” the groups wrote.
They also argued that trade limits could trigger retaliation from other countries.
“Beyond price impacts, restricting exports would be a gift to our competitors,” the groups wrote. “American energy dominance comes from being a reliable supplier to the world. If we pull back, other countries will step in, our influence will shrink, and our adversaries will gain ground. America’s energy exports are a source of economic and geopolitical strength.”
The argument over exports is playing out with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve sharply lower than it was a year ago.
Preliminary Energy Information Administration data showed the reserve fell by about 405,000 barrels in the week ending Sept. 18 and was down about 121 million barrels from a year earlier, or roughly 30%.
CNBC reported that the reserve dropped below 300 million barrels in August for the first time in more than four decades.
An Energy Department spokesperson told CNBC the reserve needs about 70 million barrels to operate safely.
Most of the 172 million barrels Trump authorized in March were structured as exchanges, the Department of Energy said in April, requiring oil companies to return the borrowed oil with additional “premium barrels.”
The department said in a March 11 statement that about 200 million barrels had been arranged to go back into the reserve “within the next year” and “at no cost to the taxpayer,” while Trump told CNBC in March that after using the reserve, “we’ll fill it up.”
The Energy Department’s website says the reserve can release oil at a maximum rate of 4.4 million barrels a day for up to 90 days before the pace slows as storage caverns empty.
Trump’s diesel retreat also came during a renewed diplomatic push with Iran at the United Nations.
Trump said a three-hour round of U.S.-Iran negotiations Tuesday “went very well” and later told Gulf and other regional leaders there was “a lot of momentum” toward an agreement.
“It was a very good meeting,” Trump said. “It was a meeting that lasted for three hours.”
.@POTUS says his representatives met with the Iranian delegation to the United Nations earlier today: "I can't imagine why they wouldn't want to do it… In one case, it's obliteration and the other alternative is potential greatness. It could be a great country." pic.twitter.com/yTBO2ZGBuu
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) September 22, 2026
Trump then reduced Iran’s options to “potential greatness” or “obliteration.”
“It’s greatness, potential greatness, or obliteration,” Trump said. “In one case it’s obliteration, and the other alternative is potential greatness. It could be a great country.”
The president later sounded upbeat while meeting British Prime Minister Andy Burnham, saying communication between Washington and Tehran had continued that day.
“I think that a settlement is going to be reached,” Trump said. “They want to talk to us. They have been talking to us, even today they’ve been talking to us. And the relationship is developing.”
