Topic: Newsmax
Back in November, Newsmax let Donald Trump falsely claim that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was "low or virtually empty" when he took office and that filling it up was a great act of political courage. In a March 31 article, Nicole Wells let him lie about it again:
As President Joe Biden weighs releasing a record amount of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to bring down soaring gas prices, former President Donald Trump predicts that Biden will soon empty it.
Citing someone familiar with the matter, CNN reports that the Biden administration is considering a plan to release approximately 1 million barrels per day from the reserve in the coming months.
A decision could come as early as Thursday, when Biden is scheduled to speak about gas prices from the White House.
"So after 50 years of being virtually empty, I built up our oil reserves during my administration, and low energy prices, to 100% full," Trump said in a statement Thursday. "It's called the Strategic National Reserves, and it hasn't been full for many decades. In fact, it's been mostly empty."
As we documented, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve was more than 80 percent full -- not "virtually empty" -- when Trump filled them, it took no political courage on Trump's part to do so given that oil prices were at rock bottom at the start of the pandemic. And contrary to Trump's later claim that the SPR is "supposed to only be used for large-scale emergency or conflict," Trump also signed a bill while in office mandating the sale of 100 million barrels of SPR oil to fund the government.
Wells made no attempt to fact-check Trump.
