You are describing market forces at work. I am talking about something totally different- a hands-on, direct control of prices only in the US market....elevated temporarily by those who can do it- the oil companies....for the express purpose of ensuring the defeat of a President who has gone out of his way to ensure that US oil companies can not come to the global market.
If you were the US oil companies, would you pissed off....?
By artificially holding domestic gasoline prices high, the oil companies are in a unique position to really piss off the US population.
For a while at least...timing is everything.
The US market for crude oil is hardly separated from the Global market.
Most of the oil we use in this country is imported from outside our borders.