After a briefing from the White House, TikTok influencer Ellie Zeiler blamed high gas prices and inflation on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and national security staffers met last week with 30 TikTok stars to discuss the war in Ukraine. Zeiler — an 18-year-old with 10.5 million followers — said that “she hopes to remain in communication with the White House and continue to press officials there about key issues,” The Washington Post reported. “I’m here to relay the information in a more digestible manner to my followers,” she said. “I would consider myself a White House correspondent for Gen Z.”
Over the weekend, Zeiler posted a TikTok explaining why gas prices and inflation rates are hitting record levels.
“I had the opportunity to ask the White House why gas down the street is $7 and here’s what they said,” she began. “The obvious reason: we are getting out of a two-year pandemic. When use goes up, price goes up.”
The White House told the TikTok influencers who were invited on the zoom call to blame the high gas prices on Putin. pic.twitter.com/qBCEA6r2C7
— Libs of Tik Tok (@libsoftiktok) March 14, 2022
“But the call was predominantly about Ukraine and Russia, so how does that relate? Russia is one of the top three producers of oil, and it is actually their number-one revenue source,” Zeiler continued. “Now, with Putin starting this horrific fight between Ukraine and Russia, nobody wants to work with him and do international trade. So, with people being scared of war and limited resources, prices are bound to go up as well.”
“For the people who can’t pay $7 for a gallon of gas, there’s an app called GasBuddy that shows you the cheapest gas near you,” Zeiler concluded.
Indeed, Zeiler’s arguments match the narrative coming from the Biden administration with respect to the Ukraine conflict.
In response to inflation hitting a fresh four-decade high of 7.9%, President Biden claimed that rising price levels were due to sanctions and other problems caused by Putin’s war. However, Biden claimed credit for “good” economic news by saying that the “economic data tells the tale of two recoveries.”
“Today’s inflation report is a reminder that Americans’ budgets are being stretched by price increases and families are starting to feel the impacts of Putin’s price hike,” Biden said in a statement. “A large contributor to inflation this month was an increase in gas and energy prices as markets reacted to Putin’s aggressive actions.”
“As I have said from the start, there will be costs at home as we impose crippling sanctions in response to Putin’s unprovoked war, but Americans can know this: the costs we are imposing on Putin and his cronies are far more devastating than the costs we are facing,” Biden continued.
Similarly, Psaki explained at a recent press briefing that “The reason why the price of gas is going up is not because of steps the president has taken, they are because President Putin is invading Ukraine, and that is creating a great deal of instability in the global marketplace.”
As The Daily Wire reported last summer, Biden has taken several steps that have made energy more expensive — such as nixing the Keystone XL Pipeline and banning most new oil leasing on federal lands.