we got a reminder that gas high are at a record. double what they were a little more than 1 1/2 years ago. and going still higher. i talked to a key oil analyst on fox business, which ifdown don t get you should demand because he had the bad news of imparting the fact that $5 gas is inevitable. for a dozen states in this country, indeed it is. $6 gas is the next stop after that. and then the best you could hope for is that that momentum slows. all of this happening the same day seven states across the country are having crucial primaries that could decide the table setting we ll have in november for this big mid-term election. at which times progressives will be on the defense and conservatives and republicans, they hope, that they ll be in the advantage. all of this occurring at the same time we had the corner of wall and broad racing ahead on the notion that even with the higher gas prices, optimism about retail sales and americans penchant to spend. target, for example, th
higher gas prices, optimism about retail sales and americans penchant to spend. target, for example, the first to say we have problems going forward and we have all of the wrong items on our store shelves that we thought would be popular certainly during this whole covid thing that are no longer popular right now. sandra: let s get the latest read on this from mark meredith at the white house. mark, how are they digesting this? the white house insists the u.s. economy is strong. given the headlines you just mentioned and what we re seeing in polling, that s not the case. take a look at the wall street journal found. a majority of americans don t believe the economy is great shape. ranking it poor or not so good. 17% finding it excellent. one burden that we re all facing is the high gas prices. the latest numbers is hard to believe. right now the average nationwide for a gallon of regular
that sometimes to get things through it s not working that way. my relationship with the republicans is excellent. many agree with what i m doing. is it excellent, and do people buy it? are they confident that the president is on their side, the republicans specifically? reporter: we actually talked to some republicans last week after the deal to raise the debt limit, democrats have struck. a few said there s a little bit of trust that we have a trust issue with the white house right now. of course this conversation that he had with chuck and nancy as he calls them earlier this week an daca which is such a hot button issue does add another layer of mistrust. on the other hand if you talk to republicans that supported the president like mike kelley from pennsylvania, he said president trump is lighting a fire under our membership because we have a bunch of members including members of the freedom caucus who are all or nothing. so he wants us to work together
president has left saudi arabia and coming back to the u.s. what was on the agenda with his meeting and the saudi king? reporter: u.s. officials said it was a good meeting. called it excellent. more than two hours long and stressed the alignment of both countries on the two biggest issues threatening the stability of this region. iran and syria. it was really necessary for the u.s. to reassure saudi arabia that our diplomatic outreach to iran on the nuclear issue was going to be something that would not effect the u.s. relationship with saudi arabia. officials said that they stressed the u.s. would not accept a bad outcome and the u.s., of course, is still worried about iran s other actions in the region that are seen as destabilizing. the united states and saudi arabia agree on helping the opposition in syria.