President Donald Trump has a prime opportunity to help lower costs for Americans in his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping, the top GOP lawmaker overseeing U.S. diplomacy told Fox News Digital.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, R-Fla., argued that China is one of the biggest culprits in Americans' current struggle with high cost of living - particularly at the gas pump. He blamed China's willingness to arm Iran in its ongoing conflict with the U.S., which has wreaked havoc on global trade by effectively closing the Strait of Hormuz.
"If President Trump can secure that China will stop arming Iran, who is trying to destabilize this key oil route through the globe, then the president will have done something very important for affordability, especially in terms of global crude prices, which equal prices at the pump here in the United States of America," Mast said.
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Cost of living and affordability are fast becoming top issues in the coming November midterm elections, with both parties accusing the other of pushing policies that will make life more expensive for everyday Americans.
Gas prices are a particular flashpoint, with the ongoing U.S. war with Iran being blamed for the rising cost of oil.
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The current national average cost of a gallon of gas is $4.47, up more than 30 cents since Sept. 3.
Mast said China "probably is the number one actor that is working to raise those prices," with its support of both Iran and Russia's wars.
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He said Trump has a prime opportunity on Thursday to press Xi on easing up on that support for Tehran, in particular.
"China is arming Iran so that Iran can indiscriminately attack civilians moving through the strait. That is the fundamental difference about what China is doing ... the United States, looking to protect all of those resources going through there, the civilians going on the ships through there and the civilians across all of the countries throughout the Gulf," Mast said.
Over the last two months, Mast said, Trump "moved over a billion barrels of oil through the Strait of Hormuz."
"He's moved over 2,000 ships through the Strait of Hormuz, civilian merchant ships through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has moved nothing. But that doesn't mean that the global oil markets don't see instability," Mast said.
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Thursday's summit will mark Trump's third meeting with Xi of this term, and Xi's first visit to the U.S. since the commander-in-chief returned to the White House last year.
Asked what leverage Trump has to press Xi on Iran, Mast pointed to the Russia-Iran sanctions bill the president recently signed into law. That legislation was named after the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., one of the most vocal critics of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
"China is the number one target for that sanctions bill. It would affect, has the potential to affect, a great deal of trade if President Trump chooses not to waive some of his sanction authorities that he's given in that bill," Mast said.
