Stickers Blaming Joe Biden for High Gas Prices Appear at Filling Stations, Media Says

The decals started appearing last year amid high inflation, which according to the Bureau of Labour Statistics rose to 7 percent in 2021, the biggest increase in four decades. The recent surge in gasoline prices has been attributed to Western sanctions in response to Russia's special operation in Ukraine.

Stickers blaming US President Joe Biden for high gasoline prices have appeared at filling stations across the country, the New York Post has reported. According to the tabloid, the decals, which show a finger-pointing POTUS with the words "I did that" even appeared in New York City, a Democratic stronghold.

The stickers reflect the frustration of some Americans at surging gas prices, the New York Post writes. According to the American Automobile Association, as of Saturday one gallon (3.8 litres) of regular unleaded gas is averaging $4.32 across the country.

Mayor Melendez, 20, from Brooklyn said he is now forced to make budget cuts in order to fill up his Toyota RAV4. "I just spent $47, and that was only half a tank. I usually go out to eat on the weekends, and now I can't do that", he told the New York Post.

Harold Frost, 29, from Manhattan told the outlet that the high prices have forced him to use public transport. "My car has been parked the whole week because of this", he said before criticising President Joe Biden. "I just know everything he's been doing since he took office has been going downhill. Bring Trump back".

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The stickers first started appearing at gas stations last year amid rising inflation, but their presence expanded recently. Javier Estrada Ovalles, who sells his own stickers with president Biden through his company Automotive Anarchy, told Slate that he is benefitting from the oil shock. He said he went from getting 20 to 30 orders a day to 80 a day.

"Me personally, I'm not either left or right or Democrat or Republican, nothing like that. It's just whatever sells is pretty much what's gonna go on the shelf", Ovalles said.

President Biden himself blamed the surging prices on his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Since 24 February, Moscow has been conducting a special operation in Ukraine, which Putin said is aimed at de-Nazifying Kiev as well as protecting the residents of the two breakaway regions – the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics from the genocide being waged by Ukraine's leadership.

Western nations have condemned the Kremlin's actions, calling them an "invasion" and slapped the harshest sanctions on Moscow to date. Washington banned the import of Russian oil and gas. The special operation itself and subsequent punitive measures unsettled markets and drove oil prices up.

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Biden's critics, however, point out that gas prices started rising well before the situation in Ukraine and say that the Democrat is himself responsible for the predicament. They note that the Democrat rescinded the permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline system. The project was intended to move oil from Canadian provinces to US refineries, but it faced opposition due to environmental concerns.

In addition, critics claim that rising inflation in the US is the result of massive spending by the Biden administration, which passed bills worth trillions of dollars.

"Americans aren't stupid. They know what inflation was doing to their purchasing power before Putin's tanks rolled into Ukraine, and they will correctly assess a portion of blame for further price hikes on Putin. But when the president tries — brazenly and repeatedly — to argue that pump prices are Putin's fault, he loses ground with the American public, and he doesn't have a lot of ground to lose", political analyst Hugh Hewitt wrote in an article in The Washington Post.

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