Trump’s DoorDash Stunt Accidentally Highlights His Biggest Political Problem

President Donald Trump invited a DoorDash driver to the White House on Monday to promote GOP tax policy, but the photo-op actually highlighted an issue the president would rather not talk about: soaring fuel costs for the working class.

Fuel prices have skyrocketed since the Trump administration made the decision with Israel to attack Iran in late February. Drivers now pay an average of $4.13 per gallon for gasoline, up roughly a dollar from before the invasion.

Those higher costs have put a squeeze on transportation gig workers like the one who delivered the president his McDonald’s on Monday. In fact, fuel prices have gotten so bad that DoorDash recently instituted an “emergency gas relief program” to help workers weather the Trump-induced energy crisis. It includes a weekly stipend for high mileage drivers.

Of course, that’s not what Trump was looking to promote with his DoorDash stunt. In a statement, the White House claimed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (rebranded as the Working Families Tax Cut Act) has helped the driver, Sharon Simmons of Arkansas, save big on her tax return this April due to the deduction for tips.

“Sharon is just one of the millions of American workers who are seeing the real results of President Trump’s signature Working Families Tax Cuts,” the White House said.

The president still managed to draw attention to the war by taking questions from the press with Simmons standing awkwardly beside him outside the Oval Office. Asked about his faltering ceasefire, Trump said Iran’s nuclear ambitions were the “sticking point” in negotiations.

“Iran will not have a nuclear weapon,” Trump told reporters after accepting two bags of fast food. “And we agreed to a lot of things, but they didn’t agree to that. And I think they will agree to it, I’m almost sure of it.”

At one point a reporter asked Simmons if the White House were “good tippers.”

Simmons, who apparently hadn’t been tipped yet, looked around and said, “Ummm…”

The president then handed her what appeared to be a $100 bill.

“Thank you,” Trump said to the reporter. “You reminded me.”

Crude oil prices dropped after an initial ceasefire deal was struck last week, but shot up again this weekend after Trump said the U.S. would blockade the Strait of Hormuz, the crucial oil shipping route that Iran has throttled during the war. On Monday, the price of Brent crude was hovering around the benchmark of $100.

The pain from high gas prices isn’t felt only at the pump. Higher fuel costs have a way of filtering throughout the economy, pushing up grocery prices and utility bills. March saw the biggest monthly inflation spike in four years, according to data released Friday by the Labor Department.

Many workers are already feeling the impact. Last month, a DoorDash driver in suburban Atlanta told HuffPost that the increase in fuel costs had forced him to work longer in order to match the same earnings from before the war started. The higher gas prices had added around $15 to his weekly driving expenses.

“It’s not life-changing, but it’s probably about an extra hour or hour-and-a-half of working,” said the driver, 33-year-old Joshua Elliott. “That’s time I was going to relax. Now I’ve got to go out and work instead. I feel the grind more.”