US President Donald Trump on Thursday demanded OPEC lower prices, boasting that Middle East Arab countries owe their security to American support. “We protect the countries of the Middle East, they would not be safe for very long without us, and yet they continue to push for higher and higher oil prices! We will remember. The OPEC monopoly must get prices down now!” Trump wrote on Twitter, Reuters reported. The Republican president has lashed out at the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries over the past several months. Rising US gasoline prices could create a political headache for Trump before the November congressional elections by offsetting Republican claims that his tax cuts and rollbacks of federal regulations have helped boost the US economy. Trump has called on Saudi Arabia to raise output, saying that it should help the US by lowering fuel prices. OPEC and its allies are unlikely to agree to an official increase in crude output when they meet in Algeria on Sept. 23. Brent crude oil LCOc1 rose 75 cents at $79.45 a barrel on Friday. US light crude CLc1 also increased 45 cents at $70.77.
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