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| - A rumor that U.S. President Donald Trump suggested truckers switch from diesel to gasoline to cut fuel costs spread in March 2026.
For example, a Facebook user claimed on March 17 (archived), "Forrest Trump speaking to the truckers for Trump." The post featured an image meme showing a photo of Trump and Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin seated in the Oval Office — allegedly next to a red gas canister. Words displayed at the bottom of the image read, "Trump Suggests Truckers Switch to Gasoline to Cut Fuel Costs."
(Johnnie Johnson/Facebook)
The story spread in the weeks after Trump's administration and Israel started a war with Iran on Feb. 28, sending U.S. oil prices over $100 a barrel. The American Automobile Association reported (archived) that between mid-February and mid-March the national average gas price for a gallon of regular grade fuel jumped nearly a dollar to $3.84. Diesel also jumped well over a dollar to $5.07.
Some users seemed to believe the rumor Trump suggested truckers switch from diesel to gasoline was true. Snopes readers contacted us to investigate its legitimacy, including the emailed questions "Did Trump say that truckers should switch from diesel to gasoline?" and "Did Trump tell truckers to use gasoline instead of diesel?"
The rumor was fictional. It originated from a blog article (archived) on Fazzler.com, a website whose owner or owners label content as satire. The author's name displayed as Randall 'fink' Finkelstein. Finkelstein first posted the image meme in a Facebook post (archived) beginning as follows:
President Trump had some very simple, very obvious advice for America's 3.5 million truck drivers Tuesday: have you considered just using the other fuel? Speaking at a White House press conference, the President expressed genuine surprise that diesel and gasoline were different things, noted that none of his many beautiful cars had ever required diesel, and suggested the trucking industry might want to factor that into its planning. The American Trucking Associations said the recommendation was "noted." Randy Buell, hauling produce up I-35 out of Laredo, said nothing and simply continued driving.
Snopes contacted Finkelstein to ask several questions. That correspondence appears later in this article, as does the story of a similar moment from the past in which Trump listened to a man at a donor dinner explain the difference between diesel and gasoline.
Researching the Trump-gasoline rumor
To determine the rumor's origin, we first used search engines such as Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo. If Trump had really suggested gasoline usage to diesel-driving truckers, journalists with reputable news outlets, such as The Associated Press or Reuters, would have widely reported on it, and those search inquiries would have uncovered such evidence. That was not the case.
Fazzler first shared the rumor on March 17. The article page displayed the word "satire" in a row of small tags under the story. The blog's "About" link, appearing in the website's footer, displayed a "Terms and Conditions" page humorously mentioning the word "satire" several times:
This website is for entertainment purposes only. Please do not let your children use this site. If something in one of the stories you see here is not true, that would mean it's fiction. You can still do that without censorship – create fiction. You may see satire, and that's OK, too. If this offends you, you may want to look at better ways to use your time than run-of-the-mill indignation. Your Chi will improve. This sentence legally follows the one preceding it.
[...]
Please do not sue us. Here's why. The First Amendment protects parody and satire as free speech and expression. Fazzler uses invented names in all of their stories, except in cases where public figures are being satirized. Any other use of real names is accidental and coincidental. Third, Fazzler is not intended for readers under 18 years of age or people that don't have a maturity level of at least 18 years of age.
To note its source, the image meme in Finkelstein's Facebook post featured a watermark for Fazzler.com. A user added the red gasoline canister using either artificial intelligence or other image editing tools.
In response to Snopes' email to Fazzler, Finkelstein confirmed the publication hosts satire and said in part:
The Fazzler is a satirical publication. Everything we publish is invented, including the quotes, the sources, and, on one occasion, a federal agency. We label our content as satire, and we take that obligation seriously.
[...]
As for users believing the piece was real: we are always genuinely sobered by that, even when the story in question involves gasoline-powered diesel trucks. We would note, gently, that this one appears to have found particular traction among readers on the center to center-left of the political spectrum, people who were, perhaps, already primed to be angry and found some relief in the absurdity. That dynamic is worth naming, honestly. Confirmation bias does not check party registration. We try to be funny. We do not try to deceive. The distance between those two things is something we think about.
We have been doing this for a while. The Fazzler evolved from a local satirical paper called the Nevada County Scooper, which we operated beginning in 2014-2018. You may not remember it. We can hardly remember it ourselves, and we were there.
Fazzler's website contained other fictitious stories based on real events or people. For example, one article (archived) featured the headline, "Disney To Build Theme Park in Gaza." There were also signs the rumor's creator used AI to generate all or part of the image with that article, as well.
Trump donor dinner discussing diesel and gasoline
In January 2020, The New York Times published a lengthy video containing audio from a 2018 dinner with Trump donors. During the video — a clip that a reader brought to Snopes' attention — Trump discussed gasoline and diesel with others at the dinner.
Beginning at around the 1:04:40 mark in the video, a man tells Trump that his work pertains to powering U.S. Postal Service vehicles. He then says gasoline can't fuel a diesel-powered engine. Trump responds to him, "Oh, I see," then asks, "Why can't you? It's not as strong?"
Snopes has debunked similar pieces of media before. For example, in the early days of the U.S. and Israel going to war with Iran, we alerted readers to a fake story about Trump signing an executive order calling for the removal of all gas price signs at service stations.
Here's why Snopes investigates stories described as satire or parody.
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